Asoka Basnayake
Auckland, April 7, 2022
Meanwhile, the economy is in dire straits
Sri Lankans protesting in Auckland on April 3, 2022 (Photo supplied by the Author)
For the last few days, Sri Lankans all over the world, not just those living in Sri Lanka, are out on the streets, with banners, demanding that its President goes home, asking for the billions of dollars of public money swindled by one family and its henchmen to be returned to the nation, once a prosperous country, named the Pearl of the Indian Ocean.
As a Sri Lankan born, New Zealander or Sriwi, I want to write my thoughts on the sad state of this beautiful country which I left over 40 years ago.
We have never seen the monumental force of people, the comradery, the unity among Sri Lankans all over the world who are asking the President of Sri Lanka to ‘Go Home.’ Millions of people are also demanding that they return the money that they robbed from the Nation.
Uprising of the oppressed
There have been uprisings in Sri Lanka that I have witnessed in my lifetime, in 1970, in 1988-89, the 30-year-old civil war. But this is the uprising of oppressed people, people who have had enough, people who have reached the end of their tether, the breaking point.
My fellow Aucklanders would have seen a large number of Sri Lankans who lined the streets opposite the Countdown Supermarket in Mt Wellington on Sunday 3 April. Sri Lankans, young and old, holding babies, toddlers, and schoolchildren bearing banners took part in a peaceful protest urging the ruling family to ‘“Go Home.’
Such demonstrations were held and are being held all over the world, in nearby Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide as well as far away, Los Angeles, Boston, New York, Alberta and Winnipeg in Canada, Estonia, Paris, Milan, London, to name a few, to support the thousands of Sri Lankans who took to the streets fed-up with years of misuse of public money, nepotism, separatism and flaunting flashy exorbitant lifestyles of this family of crooks.
Many of my Kiwi friends have asked about the situation and why it had happened and I thought I must attempt to pen my thoughts for others like them.
Sri Lankans protesting in Auckland on April 3, 2022
(Photo from Tamil Guardian)
Nepotism rampant
The average New Zealander obviously cannot fathom the nepotism that most Sri Lankans took for granted for the past few years. Can you imagine a “democratically elected government” called the Socialist Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka, having so many members of one family in the Parliament who hold so many cabinet portfolios and other key positions?
- Executive President: Nandasiri Gotabhaya Rajapakse (Age 71) holds the defence portfolio
- Prime Minister: Mahinda Rajapakse (younger brother of Gota) (Age 74) – Minister for finance (former), Urban development and Buddhist affairs. Recently was given portfolios for economic policies and plan implementation
- Speaker: Chamal Rajapaksa (older brother of both Gota and Mahinda), (Age 77), former Irrigation Minister and Deputy Defence Minister
- Finance Minister: Basil Rajapaksa (younger brother of the above three)
- Namal Rajapaksa: Minister of Sports, Youth Affairs, Communication etc. (son of Mahinda R.)
- Yoshitha Rajapaksa: Chief of Staff of the Prime Minister (son of Mahinda R)
- Shashindra Rajapaksa: Minister of Agriculture. Son of Chamal R)
- Shamindra Rajapaksa: Director of Sri Lankan Airlines (State Airline) and Director of Telecom (son of Chamal R)
- Nirupama Rajapaksa: Minister (first cousin of the Rajapaksa brothers)
- Nipuna Ranawaka: Son of sister Gandhini Rajapaksa
- Others include sister Preethi’s spouse Lalith Chandradasa who holds a key position in the Government Medical Officers Association, Ports Authority, Phamacare, Fisheries, Aquatic Resources etc. Several key roles as Chairman of state-Owned Enterprises, Ambassadors were also given to family members.
These are only a few and comprehensive details can be found on the Rajapaksa family on Wikipedia.
Many of our South Asian countries have political dynasties, corruption and nepotism.
The President and Prime Minister of Sri Lanka have been accused of appointing close family members to Cabinet and high government posts (Photo Supplied by the Author)
It has been a part and parcel of the politics of these lands but I doubt if anything on this scale has happened anywhere else in the world.
It is heart-wrenching that it had to happen in my country.
Rajapaksas have ridden on the wave of them taking the credit for ending the 30-year-old civil war in the country and brainwashing the Sinhala Buddhist majority to think of them as the saviours of the nation while they sucked out the blood of the nation to fill their own coffers. It has taken the country two terms of Mahinda as President and one of Gotabaya as the President with Mahinda as the Prime Minister to realise what has happened.
It indeed was a huge fools’ paradise they were all living in but the bubble has now burst.
Economy bankrupt
The tentacles of the Rajapaksa family giant octopus have managed to slowly creep, grab and cover practically all parts of the country’s resources sucking in public money to fatten their own bank accounts and investments all over the world. Basil Rajapakse was brought down from the US where he is a citizen, only in July 2021 to take up the portfolio of Finance Minister with control over the important institutions of the Treasury and the Central Bank. It must also be noted that Basil, who reportedly has barely completed his secondary education, was the last nail in the coffin of the economic bankruptcy of the nation.
Basil is popularly known as ‘Mr Ten Percent’ in the country.
How did it all become a time bomb? Rajapaksas have borrowed massive amounts of money from China, mortgaging parts of the country for several huge white-elephant projects.
Huge commissions have been reportedly received and the Chinese influence could one day make a second Tibet out of Sri Lanka.
Over the last few months, Sri Lankans faced major difficulties in securing essentials in their day to day lives. The price of food increased by three, to four-fold; essentials like rice, milk powder, lentils and pulses went up drastically as the dollar crisis stopped many imports. LPG Gas became a rare commodity while the lack of diesel to generate electricity caused power cuts of up to 12-15 hours a day. Petrol and diesel queues were huge and a few people are known to have died away in such queues.
All this happened in a country struggling to bounce back after a 30-year-old civil war followed by a long and tedious Covid pandemic. This is a country that depends on tourism to provide a livelihood to many people who were struggling already.
‘Messing with the wrong Nation’
One of the slogans that really stand out this time explains it, “You messed with the wrong generation”.
As this popular slogan says, “The rulers messed with the wrong generation.”
The power of the suppressed erupted and the rivers of angry people, people like my friends who have never stepped into the streets for a demonstration in their lives, took to the streets, yelling slogans, writing banners and joining the thousands of others to surround the houses of the 225 members of Parliament who were responsible to bring about the mess into which they were forced. Social media was blocked for a couple of days to suppress the masses, longer power cuts and curfews were enforced and tear gas and water blasting attacks on crowds were used on the people who gathered outside politicians’ houses.
Armed forces are used en masse to protect the politicians’ houses.
Power of the People
The power of the people has been evident in every town and village of the tiny country, which only has 1/5th of the landmass of New Zealand but is home to 22 million people.
Currently, all Ministers have resigned and Gotabaya nor Mahinda have not resigned.
Gotabaya has appointed a few of his close friends in a cabinet reshuffle as Ministers, in a ploy to get a caretaker government until the elections.
But will the people who have been driven to desperation buy it? They possibly will not.
Years of suppression, lies, threats, misuse of power and nepotism have to come to an end and we can only support and watch from the sidelines.
Today, the family reportedly owns an unbelievable array of property all over the world and information is coming out in chunks every day. Private jets, private island resorts in the Maldives, huge investments in Uganda, property in the US and Australia and revelations of massive investments are daily coming out.
One of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s sons Rohitha, who is unemployed, reportedly bought a painting by a renowned Sri Lankan artist George Keyt for LKR 350 lakhs ($71,870) and photos of a valuable Royal Crown that mysteriously disappeared from a museum in Colombo that was displayed as an ornament in the background of a photo of Namal Rajapaksha playing with his baby son at home has been circulating among Sri Lankans recently.
Migration to other countries
A few people escaping the sinking ship, have sneaked into other countries such as Namal Rajapaksa’s wife, child and in-laws. Some like Basil and Gota have dual citizenships in the US. With massive investments offshore, they will be able to escape and live comfortable lives while the average Sri Lankan who lives in the country will continue to suffer.
Foreign governments should take a stance not to allow such escapees with their stolen resources to pollute their countries and return them.
They should be returned to Sri Lanka and face the repercussions of their misdeeds.
The nepotism that has seen Rajapaksa supporters and henchmen in all-important roles has even extended to New Zealand.
The Mahinda Rajapaksha government appointed the current Hon Consul to New Zealand who is the brother-in-law of the disgraced Central Bank Governor and Mahinda’s close associate Ajit Nivad Cabral, another person responsible for the economic crisis in Sri Lanka.
We don’t know yet how many of these corrupt politicians will end up in New Zealand with their stolen money. Perhaps some of them will be able to secure Residency or Citizenship in New Zealand. A few years ago, one of the most wanted criminals of Sri Lanka was found in New Zealand and was arrested in Sri Lanka for one of the biggest frauds committed in South Asia VAT crime against the IRD of Sri Lanka so it is a possibility.
Sri Lanka’s future seems extremely bleak. The opposition is weak and untrustworthy and new leadership seems non-existent as the same corrupt faces get recycled and the people are sick of them.
Sri Lanka needs a miracle.
Asoka Basnayake is an Auckland based freelance writer. She has been a prominent migrant activist in New Zealand for over two decades and has held various key roles in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors while holding several governance/advisory roles with the Auckland Council, New Zealand Police, Migrant organisations and other agencies. The views expressed in the above article are her own and not that of Indian Newslink.
