As the dust settles in the turmoil in Sri Lanka, the President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has taken a plane to the Maldives and is reportedly on his way to Singapore this evening. The demonstrators had demanded that the President resign, but he fled the country instead. It is reported that he will resign later today. The demonstrators were furious at the news of his flight, since they wanted him to stay and take responsibility for the situation that has developed in the country. Control of the country is now in the hands of the Prime Minister. The thousands of demonstrators that have been out on the streets have now moved to and entered the offices of the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister has also promised that he will resign but remains in place as acting President, pending new elections. He has called for the appointment of a prime minister who will be acceptable to the government as well as to the opposition.
While the Western media has been hyping the Sri Lanka situation as a result of the Chinese “debt trap,” a recent study by Hussein Askary from the Swedish Belt and Road Institute tells the reality of the situation. After the devastating civil war ended in 2009, the government resorted to expensive borrowing from the international bond markets for reconstruction. These were loans primarily from Western financial investors like American BlackRock and British Ashmore, which hold the main part of Sri Lanka’s external debt (47%). It was the scramble to repay that, which led Sri Lanka to offer to lease the Hambantota Port to China. The Chinese payment was used to repay the international markets.
