Unfortunately, Sri Lanka is in a dark place right now. Besides the COVID-19 pandemic that is ongoing in both Sri Lanka and throughout the world, there are power cuts, rising food prices, foreign reserves falling to low levels with the risk of it running out, exploding gas cylinders among other issues. The biggest problem facing Sri Lanka is a majoritarian, incompetent government causing damage to the country and concentrating power in one political family. I believe the bad governance is the root cause of much of the bad news coming out of Sri Lanka. The pandemic has exacerbated the bad governance problems facing Sri Lanka making the negative results come faster.
It appears to me that there is a growing number of long-time supporters of the Rajapaksas who are dissatisfied with the current government’s performance. As Sri Lanka is disunited right now, we can use the common dissatisfaction as one reason to be united. A bad political tactic which is common in Sri Lanka is to divide the communities by rulers as a means to be in power. By uniting together for the country, we will be defying this strategy of the politicians. We will have our differences due to being from different communities or social groups, but we can focus on the type of society we want based on our common goals.
We can look at the type of government we should be having. We need leaders who will give equal treatment to all communities, take a firm stand against bribery & corruption, have honesty & integrity, work to take Sri Lanka out of the economic mess it’s in into a strong stable economy among other needed changes.
We Sri Lankans can work to reduce the indecent values and behaviour which stem from the top. Those of us who live in Sri Lanka can strive to take the country in the direction to where it should be. Civil society has an important role to play in this. Business leaders can work to strengthen the quality, ethics and services of their businesses. It’s important to give a good image of the country to the outside world, especially online.
I’m conflicted as I don’t want to sound very bleak about Sri Lanka’s future, yet I see more bad things headed for Sri Lanka including the potential for ones that are catastrophic. We can do our part to try to prevent potential bad occurrences from happening. While the awful politics is wreaking havoc in our country, we are not defined by it. We are a beautiful island nation with diverse cultures and communities. We offer a lot of interesting different places in a small country. Sri Lanka is a special country and an important part of Asia. Let’s work to make the society we need a reality one day.
