COLOMBO —
Sri Lanka’s opposition on Monday dismissed the president’s invitation to join
a unity government as “nonsensical” and instead demanded he resign over the
country’s worsening shortages of food, fuel, and medicines.
اضافة اعلان
President
Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s overture came as armed troops looked to quell more
demonstrations over what the government acknowledges is the country’s most
severe economic crisis since independence from Britain in 1948.
Police fired
tear gas and water cannons to disperse thousands of protesters trying to storm
the private home of the prime minister — the president’s elder brother and the
head of the family political clan — in Tangalle, once a bastion of support for
the Rajapaksas in the island’s south.
The president
asked opposition parties represented in parliament to “join the effort to seek
solutions to the national crisis,” after the late-night resignation of nearly
all cabinet ministers to pave the way for a revamped administration.
But the leftist
People’s Liberation Front (JVP) responded by urging Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his
once popular and powerful family to immediately step down.
“He really must
be a lunatic to think that opposition MPs will prop up a government that is
crumbling,” JVP lawmaker Anura Dissanayake told reporters in Colombo.
The main
minority opposition party, the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), also dismissed
the idea of their joining a Rajapaksa-led administration.
“His offer to
reconstitute the cabinet with opposition MPs is nonsensical and infuriates the
people who have been demanding his resignation,” TNA spokesman and lawmaker
Abraham Sumanthiran told AFP.
The main
opposition
Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) party made no formal statement, but its
leader Sajith Premadasa vowed Sunday that it would not join any government
featuring members of Rajapaksa’s family.
Every member of
Sri Lanka’s cabinet except the president and his elder brother, Prime Minister
Mahinda Rajapaksa, resigned late Sunday.
The country’s
central bank governor Ajith Cabraal — who has long opposed the International
Monetary Fund bailout now being sought by the country — also stepped down on
Monday.
The departures
cleared the way for the country’s ruling political clan to seek to shore up its
weakening position and attempt to stem growing public protests.
But the
president has already reappointed four of the outgoing ministers — three of
them to their old jobs — while replacing brother Basil Rajapaksa as finance
minister with the previous justice chief.
‘Deck chairs on the
Titanic’
Political analysts said the offer of a unity government did not go far
enough to address the economic crisis or restore confidence in the Rajapaksa
administration.
“This is like
re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic,” Bhavani Fonseka, political
analyst, and human rights lawyer, told AFP. “This is a joke.”
Political
columnist Victor Ivan added that a cabinet reshuffle in the guise of a national
government would not be acceptable to the public.
“What is needed
is a serious reform program, not just to revive the economy but address issues
of governance,” Ivan told AFP.
A critical lack
of foreign currency has left Sri Lanka struggling to service its ballooning
$51-billion foreign debt, with the pandemic torpedoing vital revenue from
tourism and remittances.
The result has
been unprecedented food and fuel shortages along with record inflation and
crippling power cuts, with no sign of an end to the economic woes.
Trading was
halted on the country’s stock exchange seconds after it opened Monday the blue chip index plunged below the five percent threshold needed to trigger an automatic stop.
Economists say
Sri Lanka’s crisis has been exacerbated by government mismanagement, years of
accumulated borrowing and ill-advised tax cuts.
The government has
announced it will seek a bailout from the International Monetary Fund, but talks
are yet to begin.
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