The entire country ran out of gas, shut down and had to endure rolling power blackouts. Over the past few days, the fed up citizens took to the streets to square off against the riot police. They won the battle, pulling the Nation of Sri Lanka into anarchy and chaos.
Anarchy in Sri Lanka
Rioting Sri Lanka citizens are having a pool party at the presidential palace on Saturday, July 9, after they chased the prime minister out of his house and set it on fire. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa decided that now is a good time to resign.
The press are calling the thousands who stormed the palace “one of the largest protests yet.” What do you expect after “months of demonstrations fueled by the nation’s economic crisis.” A crisis caused entirely by corruption, cronyism and mismanagement. The nation’s entire economy has pancaked.
The Rajapaksa family “has dominated politics in Sri Lanka for much of the past two decades,” New York Times relates. Gotabaya didn’t have much of a choice with a howling mob at his door so the president “agreed to resign.”
Parliamentary speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, an “ally” of former President Rajapaksa, made the announcement “at the end of a chaotic day.” Mahinda ran for the hills as “protesters entered the president’s residence and office, and thousands more descended on the capital, Colombo, to register their growing fury over his government’s inability to address a crippling economic crisis.”
Rumors say Rajapaksa was already in hiding when they stormed the presidential palace and there was “no direct confirmation about the potential resignation.” Even so, if he dares to show his face in public, the mob will tear him to shreds.
He did his best to claw onto power as long as he could, offering to “resign on July 13.” That way they could “ensure a peaceful transition of power.” Forget it. “By the evening, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who took office only in May and was also facing demands to resign, said he would step down.” He wasn’t taking any chances.
Safety of the citizens
When the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka threw in the towel, he claimed he was worried for the public safety, not his own. “Protesters also entered his private home late Saturday and set it ablaze.” A spokesman said “Mr. Wickremesinghe was not at home at the time.” He was smart enough to be in hiding, too.
Things are really desperate there and the mob is going to have some major problems once they get done looting the palace. The first thing they’re going to realize real quick is they still don’t have any gas. Now, they don’t have any government either. What now?
Taking a quick inventory shows that Sri Lanka “has run out of foreign-exchange reserves for imports of essential items like fuel and medicine” The UN already knows “more than a quarter of Sri Lanka’s 21 million people are at risk of food shortages.”
They set the Prime Minster's house on fire… (he is not inside)
The Prime Minister has now resigned. pic.twitter.com/vvUMMVII42
— ZUBY: (@ZubyMusic) July 9, 2022
That’s extra hard for a country “still grappling with the legacy of a bloody three-decade civil war.” It ended over a decade ago but the effects linger on.
Tear gas and water cannons could no longer fight off the howling peasants. That’s because no fuel, no power, no food and a 60% inflation rate creates total desperation. The instability couldn’t come at a worse time, either.
Sri Lanka “has long been viewed as a strategic prize, with both China and India — longtime rivals — jostling for influence.” It sits right off India and looks like a big jar of honey to the power hungry Pooh Bear. Everyone expects him to step in right about now with shipments of food and fuel to gain their public affection.
