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| Image: Protest in Sri Lanka |
Sri Lanka was braced for more unrest after the newly-hired president, Ranil Wickremesinghe, promised to crack down on the protests that toppled his person or thing that came before, strongly criticizing them as "against the law".
Speaking after being MPs picked him as (person or thing that comes after something else) to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Wickremesinghe made it clear he would not tolerate those he perceived to be stirring up violence.
"If you try to knock over the government, occupy the president's office and the prime minister's office, that is not (system or country where leaders are chosen by votes); it is against the law," he said.
"We will deal with them firmly according to the law. We will not allow a minority of protesters to hold back the wishes of the silent majority noisy shouting for a change in the political system."
Wickremesinghe, 73, was sworn in as the eighth president of Sri Lanka at a small (formal, special event or series of actions) in government on Thursday morning.
He took his promise of office before chief justice Jayantha Jayasuriya at the tightly guarded government complex in Colombo, a statement from his office said.
Sri Lanka's police chief and top military brass stood behind the new president as the promise was given in the presence of (related to elected lawmakers) speaker Mahinda Abeywardana.
The brief (formal, special event or series of actions) was due to be broadcast live on local television but was unexplainably cut off just before the swearing-in got underway.
(people in charge of something) said an (act of asking questions and trying to find the truth about something) into the unexpected breakdown had been launched.
Wickremesinghe was expected to name the leader of the government and old schoolmate Dinesh Gunawardena as prime minister. Gunawardena is known as a strong Rajapaksa loyalist and served as a cabinet minister when Mahinda Rajapaksa was president, and then again when Gotabaya Rajapaksa was president.
Lately, Wickremesinghe, who declared a state of emergency this week, had made statements calling protesters "(people who strongly believe in a powerful central government)" and pointing to/showing he would not be afraid to crack down on the (acts of showing or proving).
Less than an hour after he was declared president on Wednesday, a court order was issued prohibiting anyone from crowding together within a 50-metre radius of a statue that stands at Galle Face in Colombo, where protesters helped/encouraged by the country's money-based collapse have been camped out for months.
However, people fought against the order and dozens gathered on the steps of the president's offices, which are still occupied by the protest movement, to shout (words yelled out to motivate people) of "deal Ranil" - a reference to Wickremesinghe's reputation as planning (something sneaky) politician - as well as "Ranil bank person (who steals things)", referring to a bank bond scam he was involved (in crime) in. Hundreds of police and military stood on the edge/edges but did not interfere in the rally.
After being selected by MPs as president, Wickremesinghe called on the (fighting force/bad feelings) parties for an "end to division" and said he wanted to "bring everyone together so that a national agreement is formed as to the way forward".
But questions remain over whether Wickremesinghe would be able to put together a cross-party togetherness government acceptable to the people, after the major (fighting force/bad feelings) parties had promised their support for the presidential candidate he defeated.
Wickremesinghe has been prime minister six times and is close to the Rajapaksa family. Protesters fear that he will protect the Rajapaksas from being held accountable, as he has been accused of doing in the past, and would not instigate the constitutional change being demanded by the protest movement, including an end to the system of the executive presidency.
Wickremesinghe is due to serve for the rest of Rajapaksa’s term, until November 2024.
“Ranil will be chased away, he is a crook and he doesn’t have a mandate,” said Anura Goonaratna, 53, a toy exporter. “This protest movement is going to get worse. There has to be an end to this and the only ending we will accept is throwing Ranil out, whatever it takes.”
With recriminations swirling in Sri Lanka about the country’s implosion, the head of the CIA weighed into the debate on Wednesday by blaming “dumb bets” on high-debt Chinese investment.
Speaking at the Aspen security forum in Colorado, America’s spy chief Bill Burns said: “The Chinese have a lot of weight to throw around and they can make a very appealing case for their investments.”
But he said nations should look at “a place like Sri Lanka today – heavily indebted to China – which has made some really dumb bets about their economic future and are suffering pretty catastrophic, both economic and political, consequences as a result.
“That, I think, ought to be an object lesson to a lot of other players – not just in the Middle East or South Asia, but around the world – about having your eyes wide open about those kinds of dealings.”
China has invested heavily in Sri Lanka – strategically located in the Indian Ocean and off India, often seen as a rival of Beijing – and worked closely with former president Rajapaksa.
However, analysts have disputed the China debt-trap narrative in Sri Lanka. China only accounts for 10% of Sri Lanka’s debts, most of which were concessionary loans and the repayments only accounted for less than 5% of the country’s annual foreign debt servicing.
A much greater drain on the country’s foreign exchange reserves were international sovereign bonds, much of which are from the US, which were borrowed by the country at high-interest rates. It was these bond repayments – which were due to total over $1.5bn in 2022 – that drained Sri Lanka’s reserves and ultimately forced them to default in May, as the country was virtually bankrupt.
Rajapaksa fled the country and resigned last week in the face of mass protests over dire economic conditions, with the island nearly exhausting its supply of food and fuel as it no longer has foreign currency to pay for crucial imports.
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