Aruna Jayasena

Recently surfaced news reports in the post-Aragalaya[1] context rattled off the entire state-run health service of Sri Lanka. It stated that the national health service is on the brink of collapse with imported low-quality medicines and scarcities in essential medical supplies in government hospitals nationwide. The most triggering exposé was the gradual increase of doctors’ migration elsewhere, and the majority of those who are already abroad for post-graduate studies under government scholarships have refused to return home due to the unpromising status quo prevailing since the collapse of the national economy and heavy levies imposed on their wages, mainly targeting the gross income of technocrats and professionals in various fields. The government authorities deem that nearly 700 medical professionals have left since 2022, and about 5000 remain on the waiting lists to migrate to the UK, Canada, the Middle East, and Australia. Similar tendencies are seen among university professors, engineers, and IT professionals wanting to leave the country. This would appear as an indication of their discontentment with lately imposed taxes on individual income and substantial upsurge of rates in essential services such as electricity and water. The hyperinflation levels have drastically dropped compared to last year, yet the prices of commodities and essential items remain inflated. Overall, the uncertainty of optimistic economic recovery remains far beyond the general understanding of citizens.    

However, heightening taxes on individual income was not an abrupt blow to Sri Lankan professionals. As a matter of fact, the ripple effect seen in the Gotabaya Rajapaksa campaign in 2019 ended up in a sweeping majority in the presidential and parliamentary elections, a direct consequence of the previous Yahapalana government’s (the hybrid rule of Sirisena and Wickremesinghe) policies that imposed numerous tax liabilities on professional and private incomes that were not hitherto considered by any early government. From small and medium-scale businesses to private channeling services, from purchasing motor vehicles to going on foreign trips, the Yahapalana economic policy attempted to throttle the incomes of professionals as austerity measures introduced under routine IMF chemotherapy of structural adjustments on developing economies like Sri Lanka. Inevitably, hordes of professional sects gathered around Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s campaign for victory; in fact, as one of the preliminary acts, the Rajapaksa government in 2019 cut most of these taxes, affecting professional incomes, Small and Medium-scale businesses, and so on. During the Aragalaya, triggered as a result of the post-pandemic economic crisis, the dominant narrative within the local media was that the Sri Lankan crisis and bankruptcy were primarily caused by losing a considerable chunk of the country’s revenue income by the detrimental tax cuts by the Rajapaksa government. However, the same old taxes resurfaced with the subsequent Wickremesinghe government under direct throttling of IMF chemotherapy to bring back economic normalcy to the country.

Ironically, during the Aragalaya season, almost all political factions in the country either acted numb or were in total agreement with the IMF prescription as the only way forward. The overall misery augmented among the urban middle-class sects frequently filled the public, and digital media domains and airwaves portrayed it as an existential crisis that could only be solved by mechanisms insinuated by Western monetary agencies. In fact, one of the main slogans of Aragalaya was that the government should rush immediately to IMF, without giving much thought to the belligerent structural adjustments under IMF chemotherapy. The economic crisis was merely distinguished as a matter of financial mismanagement of the Rajapaksa government and full-fledged corruption was ostentatiously tagged with Rajapaksa politics since the 2010s. However, the dramatic entrances of the new Central Bank governor, Nandalal Weerasinghe, in April and the subsequent President, Ranil Wickremesinghe, in July 2022 to the chaotic economic and political scene conclusively signified that the country’s economy is about to be put back on the same old IMF tracks.

The unfathomability of the ongoing crisis and the key factors that coursed economic bankruptcy in Sri Lanka merely portray the limitations of the public debate and culture. The counter-narratives suggesting otherwise are being overshadowed or muted by copiously overrated mediocre analyses elicited by the Aragalaya activism in public domains and social media platforms, which again restrict the possibility for critical public discourse into germane matters. The pop-up effect of the global capitalist crisis and its repercussions seemingly remain unnoticed, and the prevalent economic conditions easily convert into public anger, especially against popular politics. Subsequent austerity measures introduced in the aftermath of the crisis such as cutting down on welfare measures, introduction of numerous public levies, and reintroduction of regulatory standards upon markets will lead to furthering of crisis. The raging poverty and unemployment among the public and typical market behavior of merely seeking profits would increase public anger against particular governments instead of markets.

However, President Wickremesinghe is now acting as if he has received a mandate to execute IMF structural adjustments by challenging the fashionable ideals of neoliberalism, i.e., freedom of choices, infinite opportunities, market flexibility, and meritocracy. The systematic collapse of the neoliberal doctrine has failed to deliver the promised social growth, and the rate of returns of individuals is being compromised by numerous taxes. Neoliberal illusion constantly convinces public as if it is the only way towards economic freedom, individual growth and prosperity. Yet it subtly coverup the burden of capital upon the general public, letting the plutocracy to sneak away from paying appropriate portion for their returns. It appears that deregulated markets cannot secure society unless government interventions impose enough regulatory measures to ensure and sustain the functionality of the community. However, taming markets to bring back economic normalcy remains peculiarly low as the economic maestros still preach in the mainstream and social media platforms that free market neoliberalism is the only way forward.

The elephant in the room remains unnoticed as all the political sects proceed with the typical blame game, mudslinging while boasting and assuring that the conditions would improve when they seize power. Populist public intermediations in the political landscape of Sri Lanka since the late 70s have gone flop as the populist responses usually do not carry a substantial and rational critique of the system, and the episodes unfolded from time to time. As it was experienced each time the economy crashed, a new center-left or alternative center-right political sects emerged with rhetorically critical slogans on the prevalent system. However, the absence of true alternative in their futuristic strategy fosters cynicism that might rekindle national policies within the framework of the Western monetary agencies and their neoliberal agendas. 

---

[1] Aragalaya is the Sinhalese vernacular term for people’s uprising. As perceived from April last year, literally thousands of the public took to the streets of Colombo demanding fuel, cooking gas, medicines, and electricity, which were inadequately produced, purchased, and distributed by the government. It was apparent that the government was grappling to portray normalcy while testing various local remedies on the dwindling economy. Especially in the aftermath of the COVID pandemic and the so-called global economic crisis triggered by the Ukrainian war, many similar economies in the Global South board into the roller-coaster ride of indefinite economic stability. However, from a considerable timespan, the Sri Lankan forex reserves were descending to hit bottom for many reasons. Yet the magnitude of the crisis pointed towards the weak management of the government and its policies, finally the Aragalaya drove President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step down after fleeing the country for his life as angry mobs encircled the presidential palace in thousands on the 9th of July 2022.