‘Drug dealers, fundamentalist groups taking advantage of economic crisis’

Amid protests in Sri Lanka over the country’s worst economic crisis, an advisor to the Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Saturday said the government has tried to control drug dealers “who have a lot of money” and that they are “very angry”.

In an interview with ANI, Walpole Piyananda, Advisor to the President of Sri Lanka on International Religious Affairs also said that “fundamental Leftist groups” were also working against the government and sections of the minority community in the country “were angry” with the government.

He indicated that ongoing protests against the Sri Lankan government in which demands are being made for Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s resignation were also a result of “fundamentalist groups taking advantages right now, especially drug dealers.”

“Drug dealers are hanging around... this government tried to control (it), many of them (have been) caught. They are very angry with the government. They have a lot of money,” he said.

He said that the Catholic Church has a “misunderstanding” with the government and that the Muslims are “angry” with the government due to the government’s move to “reclaim” some of the Buddhist temples in Northern and Eastern Sri Lanka that were “taken over”.

On the ongoing economic crisis, Piyananda said that the Sri Lankan government had steered the country through a difficult Covid-19 pandemic.

Referring to the discontent among people due to economic hardship, he said “they weren’t maybe thinking what had happened in the past.”

Piyananda recalled civilisational links between India and Sri Lanka.

“Thank you so much to India. India is like our big brother... all of our culture, custom, tradition, all of (it) came from India. We depend on India all the time,” Walpole Piyananda, Advisor to the President of Sri Lanka on international religious affairs said.

“Since our Lord Buddha was born in India... we have great relationships from that time till now,” he added.

Piyananda, a practising Buddhist monk, said the present government of Sri Lanka tries to follow the “principles of Emperor Ashoka”.

He thanked India for the help extended to Sri Lanka amidst its worst economic crisis. Piyananda said Sri Lanka needs financial help to deal with the economic crisis.

Sri Lanka is grappling with an economic crisis that has led to massive protests against the ruling Rajapaksa government.

Sri Lanka’s economy has been under pressure since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. A crash in the tourism sector was followed by a crash in the agriculture sector after the government’s move to ban all chemical fertilisers in a bid to make the Island country’s agriculture fully organic.

Sri Lanka is facing a foreign exchange shortage, which has affected its capacity to import food and fuel, as well as resulted in the country defaulting on its foreign debt.

The President of the Asian Buddhist Conference for Peace (ABCP) - Sri Lanka National Centre, Maitipe Wimalasara Maha Thera on Saturday blamed the “mismanagement” of economic policies by the country’s leadership for the present turmoil.

In an exclusive interview with ANI, Maitipe while giving his views on the economic crisis in Sri Lanka, said, “In the present situation, the present economic crisis in Sri Lanka over a considerable period of time is due to mismanagement. For the last 75 years, Sri Lanka was not able to improve its economic policies”.

Comparing Indian economic policies with Sri Lanka, he said that both countries achieved independence at the same time -- India on 15 August, 1947 and Sri Lanka on 4 February, 1948. However, India has established economic policies irrespective of different governments coming to power in the country.

“This is very unfortunate, both India and Sri Lanka achieved independence at the same time. We always believed that Indian independence helped Sri Lanka also to achieve it. We have a great reverence for India and we pay respect to it. There is some political battle over some of the economic policies whereas India has established economic policies irrespective of different governments coming to power in India. Some of the policies have not really changed, preferably the long term perspectives and vision. Meanwhile, in Sri Lanka, it changes with the different governments. It is some form of mismanagement,” said Maitipe.

He also highlighted the problems that the island nation faced since independence and also questioned why management was not on the right track?

“This is the highest peak time of the economic crisis. There are many other factors too, many other reasons as well --why management is not on the right track?” said the Buddhist monk.

Sri Lanka’s economy started showing cracks after Tsunami and Covid-19 pandemic which hit its tourism sector, the highest contributor to its GDP.

In a veiled attack on China, he said that maybe Sri Lanka is facing a crisis due to political misbehaviour or foreign influence.

“Foreign policy of Sri Lanka is not very much transparent. Sometimes we go with the Chinese version, sometimes we go with the Indian version and sometimes we are in the non-alignment movement, sometimes with the Russians, and Americans. Our policies are not functioning smoothly,” he said.

China has become the world’s largest government creditor over the past decade, with its state-owned policy banks lending more to developing countries than the International Monetary Fund or the World Bank in some recent years. It invested heavily in Sri Lanka.

But the opacity around the terms and scale of some of that lending has been criticised, especially as the pandemic exacerbates debt problems in Sri Lanka.

“Sri Lanka in one way is influenced by China. Indian influence is also there but, they are friendly. We received so much help from them. Sri Lanka is a small island with just 22 million population and is situated in a vital position on the map. India thinks about Sri Lanka, maybe some countries are not happy about it. We received donations and facilities from both countries. The present economic crisis is caused by Chinese loans. It’s a death trap,” said the monk.

China is displaying reluctance in assisting with loan bailouts to Sri Lanka, which is facing severe economic and foreign debt crises even as the Asian giant was earlier keen on providing loans for various infrastructure projects in the country.

Sri Lanka is battling a severe economic crisis with food and fuel scarcity affecting a large number of the people in the island nation. The economy has been in a free-fall since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sri Lanka is also facing a foreign exchange shortage, which has, incidentally, affected its capacity to import food and fuel, leading to the power cuts in the country. The shortage of essential goods forced Sri Lanka to seek assistance from friendly countries.