And An Anti-Austerity Marxist President Was Sworn In Yesterday
The first time I went to Sri Lanka— then Ceylon— was in 1970 and I drove… from London. You can’t do that anymore because the ferry service from Dhanushkodi in Southern India across the Palk Strait to Talaimannar in northwestern Sri Lanka was discontinued decades ago. If I remember correctly, mine was the only private vehicle on the ferry. The next time was during the civil war (1983-2009) and I flew there and was warned by a retired army officer we met at a small hotel in Tangalla (I think) about exploding pineapples. The civil war kept us out of the rebel-controlled north and east. Back then, there were almost no American tourists— Europeans, but not Americans, other than some adventurers looking for off-the-beaten path travelers.
There’s peace again and, hard as it is for me to believe, something like 100,000 Americans go there every year. A lot has changed in Sri Lanka. Roland keeps trying to talk me into going back; it’s still one of the longest plane rides in the world. But there has been tremendous investment in upgrading infrastructure (transportation) as well as accommodation options and improved security.
Over the weekend, Sri Lanka had presidential election and now has a socialist president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD), who was immediately sworn in on Monday morning. He was seen as pro-working class and opposed to the political elite that has always ruled post-colonial Sri Lanka. The two biggest issues were corruption and the severe Austerity regime imposed on the country by the IMF, marked by “a severe shortage of essentials such as medicine, food, cooking gas and fuel.”
The prime minister, Dinesh Gunawardena, kind of a leftist as well, resigned just before Dissanayake was sworn in, paving the way for the dissolution of parliament. The former president, conservative Ranil Wickremesinghe, was eliminated in the first round of balloting with 2,299,767 votes. The second round pitted AKD against centrist Sajith Premadasa
Dissanayake- 5,740,179
Premadasa- 4,530,902
The Guardian reported that “Swathes of the population said it was the promise of change that brought them to vote for the leftist leader for the first time last weekend. As the head of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), traditionally a staunchly Marxist party, Dissanayake had remained out in the political cold for years, winning just 3.8% of the vote in the previous election.”
Unlike most of Sri Lanka’s past presidents, Dissanayake was not born into a political background. Instead, his family were largely in agriculture, while his father was a low-level office worker. Dissanayake was the first student in his school to go to university.
It was while studying for his science degree that he first threw himself into the leftist politics of the JVP, joining the student wing in the late 1980s when the violent insurrection and assassinations were continuing. With government death squads targeting known JVP members, Dissanayake was forced underground for a period and his parents’ house was burned down in retaliation.
The party was banned for several years but, driven by an anger at “state-led terror,” Dissanayake remained within its ranks. He first entered mainstream politics in 2000 when he joined parliament as an MP for the JVP. He was made a cabinet minister in 2004 after his party joined the ruling alliance, but the coalition did not last and he resigned from the post a year later.
Dissanayake became leader of the party in early 2014, and not long after made a first apology for the past violence committed by JVP. In 2019, the party led the formation of a larger socialist political coalition, the NPP, along with dozens of other smaller parties, activists and trade unions, in the hope of gaining power.
It was not until economic and political disaster hit Sri Lanka in 2022 that Dissanayake’s political star began to rise. As Sri Lanka found itself almost bankrupt, without foreign reserves to import basic food, fuel and medicines, and populations began to go hungry, people began to turn against traditional parties and political leaders. A mass protest movement led to the toppling of the president Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his powerful family dynasty, who were accused of rampant corruption and misappropriation of state assets.
While the JVP denied playing a big role in the movement, known as the aragalaya (struggle), in the aftermath of Rajapaksa’s resignation, many of its leaders joined the NPP. Over the past two years the party mobilised a highly effective grassroots campaign to capitalise on the frustrations voiced by the aragalaya, and Dissanayake positioned himself as the opposite to the much-loathed political elites.
His promises of transparency, to hold previous political leaders accountable for corruption and end the culture of privilege for MPs proved popular. So too was his promise to renegotiate the terms of a $3 billion International Monetary Fund loan, which is seen as coming with punishing conditions of austerity. Nonetheless, his victory was not a resounding one and he won on Sunday with just 43% of the vote, one of the lowest victory margins ever in a presidential race.
Anyway, I recommend the country highly if you’re looking for a place to visit. The food is delicious and there are plenty of fantastic sites— both natural and ancient. I’ve been to every one of these places: