NPP’s ten months - promises fulfilled and hopes hanging fire

On September 21, 2024, the National People’s Power (NPP)’s Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD), was elected president of this country. General elections were scheduled to be held on November 14, the same year. Campaigning for his party, the new president said, experience had shown that political parties winning a two-thirds majority used their newfound political power to enact laws detrimental to the people.

The president and his party campaigned for a strong parliamentary majority and promised a corruption-free regime. He added an addendum, saying that once voted into power, they would not be able to solve all the problems faced by the people of the country overnight. 

All the same, the electorate gave the president’s party a two-thirds majority at the polls. Has government performance lived up to expectations? Will it lead the country out of its financial crisis? It has been ten months since being brought into power, let’s see how it has performed.

During its first seven months, the new rulers have maintained control over inflation, only just. To do this, it has been following the policies of the immediate past president. According to the Central Bank, headline inflation, which remained negative in November 2024, started to rise, but is expected to turn positive by the second quarter of 2025.

The country’s exports during the first six months of 2025 exceeded 8.3 billion U.S. dollars, the country’s Export Development Board (EDB) said on Monday, 28 July. The country’s exports have risen significantly during the first six months of this year. Total exports, including both merchandise and services, reached USD 8.3 billion. 

Yet poverty remains rampant. Wages are not keeping pace with rising costs. UNICEF highlights that poverty in Sri Lanka significantly impacts children’s well-being, leading to issues like malnutrition, developmental delays, and increased vulnerability to various forms of trauma and stress. These impacts can have long-lasting consequences, affecting their physical and cognitive development, the organisation warned.

To tackle this problem, more recently government has made some attempts. A few actions have been implemented. Salaries of state sector employees, which had been static since the financial meltdown, were raised minimally, but still raised.

In the private sector, however, factors governing production include costs of land, rents, raw materials, and labour. The rise in costs of raw materials during the COVID pandemic led to cuts in workers’ wages and a loss of employment for thousands of others. Trade unions too were forced to agree with management’s demands for salary cuts. 

However, even after conditions improved, wages remained static. 

The government was ultimately forced to intervene. On 22 July, it mandated the private sector pay a minimum monthly and daily wage to improve the conditions of workers. The rise in wages again was minimal. But it has happened, and for the first time, a minimum wage for private sector employees has been put in place. 

The COVID pandemic and financial meltdown led to large numbers of children being forced to drop out of school and join the labour force to help keep the home fire burning. 

Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya announced that, according to a 2024 survey conducted by the Ministry of Education, around 20,000 students had dropped out of the education system. Another 80,000 do not attend school regularly. While the government has allocated in this year’s (2025) national budget the highest-ever allocation for education in the country’s history and this needs to be appreciated, it is not clear how the measure will cut the school dropout rate. 

Again, presidential candidate AKD charged that taking foreign loans exacerbated the country’s debt, and a comprehensive plan is needed to solve the issue. Yet, his administration continues taking loans. He has as yet not presented a planto overcome the situation.

In one field, however, the NPP-led government cannot be faulted—its anti-corruption drive. Numerous past ministers, parliamentarians and bureaucrats have been arrested and imprisoned on corruption charges. Even families of past presidents are being investigated.

While the anti-corruption drive is clearing the way for the entry of direct foreign investment, our dependence on foreign loans could lead to infringements of our own sovereignty. An example of this is Lanka’s lack of a proactive stand on the genocide committed in Palestine.

Once a strong defender of Palestinian rights, the NPP government has been reduced to mouthing mere platitudes about freedom in that country and merely condemning the ongoing genocide in that country for fear of offending the US and the EU.