Something all adult Sri Lankans and even little children know is that they are hungry. When little children ask for food, many parents will be unable to provide them with this ‘luxury’. Yes, food today has become a luxury, following years of corruption by legislators and wasteful borrowing - with no thought of how loans could be repaid.
According to ‘Bloomberg’ the country has run up an external debt of around US$8.6 billion. Yet, as of March this year (2022), the country has only $1.94 billion in its reserves!
In other words, the country is facing a foreign exchange crisis - no money to pay for imports of essential items such as fuel, LP gas, medicines and all manner of imported necessities. Not surprisingly basic foods such as rice, milk, sugar, dhal have become luxuries as all of them are imported products, while the prices of all else have risen, thanks to galloping inflation in the country.
In parliament, MP Vasudeva Nanayakkara charged around 60% of the population are affected by malnutrition. This is not surprising, given that the steep rise in the cost of living. During the past few months, have seen prices most basic foodstuffs beyond the reach of ordinary working class families.
Adding to the misery, many employers have as yet, not restored the salary-cuts imposed on workers in April 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic struck. Worsening an already bad situation, a large number of workers who lost their employment to the Covid-19 pandemic have not been able to find regular jobs as yet.
With a shortage of basic food, medicaments, fuel and cooking gas, long and daily power cuts, together with government’s inability to hold school examinations due to a shortage of paper, the masses are on the streets. They are demanding the President and his buddies who fill the ranks of the Cabinet, to leave.
The common cry at the daily protest rallies - some of which turned violent - reflects the ordinary people’s inability to adequately feed their family. It speaks of the dilemma of parents’ inability to meet the rising costs of transport - especially that of children’s transport to school and back. It reflects a mother’s difficulty to cook meals for her family due to a shortage of cooking gas and the skyrocketing cost of foodstuff.
Intermittent violence at daily protest demonstrations now increase a growing danger of the country sliding into a situation of anarchy. To face this situation, parliament was reconvened in the hope of unitedly proposing a plan of action to get the country out of the morass it has sunk.
Unfortunately a majority of our parliamentarians have not grasped the fact that the country is on the brink of bankruptcy. Without suggesting solutions, some sing the praises of their leaders and/or indulge in vulgarities based on personal agendas.
On Friday, for instance, two members of parliament from the ruling clique - the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party were involved in a verbal duel using unparliamentarily language and almost came to fisticuffs.
Ultimately, it was left to former Prime Minister Wickremesinghe to ask the Speaker to temporarily suspend sittings, bring the House to order and continue the important search for solvency and stabilizing the rapidly depreciating value of our currency. He also suggested a parliamentary vote to confirm the appointment of the expert panel appointed by the President to negotiate with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to secure a debt restructuring facility.
In a much needed lesson to parliamentarians, the Speaker suspended the two ill-behaved parliamentarians.
The three members of the advisory committee are well versed in the workings of the IMF having at different times headed departments of that organization. If our country is to receive the IMF facility, it is the poor who will suffer most from the conditions and policies imposed by that organization.
It was with this in mind, former PM Wickremesinghe spoke of the necessity of going to the World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for backup loans to purchase basics until such time as the rupee stabilizes and the country once again becomes credit worthy.
However, these loans though euphemistically termed a ‘safety net’ will not provide much relief to the poorest of the poor. They will help ensure basic needs are available - unfortunately at high prices. The poor - including the new poor - will find it extremely difficult to buy these goods in required quantities, if at all.
Unfortunately, with our economy in a mess and debt default staring us in the face, the IMF facility appears to be our best option.
