In 2022, our screens were filled with news about Sri Lanka facing a crisis. The country was running out of its foreign currency reserves and the price of basic necessities was off the charts. All examinations were cancelled due to a shortage of paper and medical operations were done under candles or electric torches. One of our neighbours was under economic turmoil and when the average Sri Lankan needed some reassurance from their leaders, they went radio silent. Asanga Abeyagoonasekera, an eminent expert on Sri Lanka, gives his detailed critical insights on how his home country reached to a point of vulnerability where any major power could whatever they wanted to.
The Book sets up the stage for this economic crisis and how the country of Sri Lanka, which was once the beacon of economic prosperity and growth in South Asia, fell into a deep hole of financial ruin and political corruption that undid all the positives in the post-Civil War era.
Structure of the Book
The Author has used a unique structure in this book which might seem overwhelming at first but over the course of reading, it will help in connecting the timeline of the events set between the years of 2019 to 2022. The book is divided into five major headings, with each heading having an average of eight chapters with the chapters indicated by a specific date. The significance of the date in each chapter helps us to track the major events that were happening not only in Sri Lanka but in the entirety of the Indo-Pacific. It also covers a great detail of the political dynamics within Sri Lanka.
The book is supported by various graphical representations through charts, maps etc which are supplementary to the arguments proposed by the author as well as the inputs by fellow scholars such as C Raja Mohan, Ambassador Shivshankar Menon, Srikanth Kondapalli, Harsh V Pant and many more.
Some of these inputs can be perceived as a foreshadowing of the events that were about to transpire in the upcoming years.
What did I like about this book?
The book was quite detailed, covering several major incidents such as the Chinese Spy Ship on Sri Lankan Ports, the 2019 Sri Lankan Elections which brought the Rajapaksas back in power, the controversial policies that started to derail the country’s economy and so on. The author did not spare any space when it came to the impact of all the events on that one singular event.
One of the areas that I found interesting was the section on Geopolitics and the meticulous coverage of the foreign policy dynamics. The chapter opened with an introduction to the concept of Indo-Pacific which was given by Karl Haushofer in 1920. Haushofer linked it in the context of the global dynamics in the Second World War and how it can be used by Great Britain (UK) and the US to combat the Axis Powers. The chapter also delved into the current dynamics of the region with QUAD (India, Japan, US and Australia) and the European Union (EU) and their perception of China as a potential threat or in the words of the EU, a “Systemic Rival”.
The chapter also dealt with Chinese Diplomacy via the BRI and how did it affect foreign policy in the Global South by covering the high-profile visits of Chinese Delegations under the leadership of Yang Jiechi and Wang Yi. Yang Jiechi visited Sri Lanka to meet the Rajapaksas in a high-profile meeting in the post-pandemic era. The visit was a sign of reassurance over the continuity of BRI amid concerns of withdrawals at that time within the region, especially in Bangladesh. Around that time, the author also delved into the foreign policy under Joe Biden’s Presidency where he covered the deepening Indo-US ties in the shadows of the Sri Lanka-China ties. It also focused on the Huawei 5G controversy whose rollout was not approved by the preceding government led by Mathripala Srisena, who prioritised India as a close partner over China. The presiding government halted all Chinese projects for investigation, especially after the fact that the Hambantota port was leased to China.
Other parts of the chapter that caught my eye were the critical evaluation of the other major powers like Russia and the EU in the Indo-Pacific as well as the impact of the rise of the Taliban and their takeover in Afghanistan. The takeover had a significant impact within Sri Lanka especially in the context of the status of Muslim citizens. This religious connection was also seen in the Sri Lankan response to the Human Rights Violations in Xinjiang.
International Scholars also covered the security dynamics in detail about AUKUS and QUAD. Their arguments were supplemented by statements by leaders from both India and Sri Lanka, the author quoted that the informal structure of the QUAD focused on protecting democratic nations from the Chinese debt trap as a counterweight with India at its helm. The chapter also covered the similarities in the Chinese strategy towards Sri Lanka and Solomon Islands, both of them located at pivotal points and their leaders giving political favours to Chinese investors in high-loss infrastructural projects.
The book also covered the various facets of Sri Lanka’s Domestic policies under the Rajapaksas and how they dealt with the domestic responses when it came to the resistance and critique towards Chinese companies and China-based projects.
The other section critically analysed the situation within Sri Lanka. It started with the August 2020 Parliamentary election and concluded with the rise of the economic crisis in 2022. The author provided a comparative analysis between the presidencies of Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapaksa on the approaches they took towards domestic and foreign policies. I think that this overview was very critical in understanding the similarities and differences between the leadership of the two brothers and what objectives they had in mind for the prosperity of the country after the end of the Civil War. Since the Author is a native of the country, the analysis can be felt more authentic than contemporary publications on Sri Lankan Foreign Policy which tend to have an India or China-heavy lens. It also covered some of the policies of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government between 2015-19, which had a more hawkish attitude towards China and focused on repairing its relationship with India which was damaged by the end of Mahinda Rajpaksa’s presidency.
The author called Gotabaya Rajapaksa an Autocratic leader under whose leadership there was a large number of human rights violations. It was a concern from the end of the European Union which raised a resolution on the withdrawal of the “Generalised Scheme of Preferences+” (GSP). The government also rejected the UNHRC resolution which was raised in March 2022, focusing on the reconciliation process with the civil war leaders and the repeal of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA). The GSP+ was a crucial policy which helped Sri Lankan exports and enabled duty-free access for 7200 products in the EU.
The author covered the abrupt steps and policies of the former government such as the setup of several family members in positions of power, shortages of essential goods, the sudden shift towards organic agriculture which impacted crop cultivation and so on. It started to form cracks in not only one of the oldest democracies in the region but also a prosperous economy which surpassed India at one point in time.
As per the author, Sri Lanka was in its “Arab Spring” moments and wanted to overthrow the autocratic leaders and their corrupt practices. The common man was marred with rising prices, and delays in the supply of essential goods. Lawyers appeared as the voice of the protesters in courts while the people in power escaped to avoid accountability. In his opinion, the Rajapaksa government was incapable of functioning after changing the cabinets twice a month which created frustration on the end of the people. This was highlighted at the moment when the Sri Lankans entered the Presidential Residence and started using its facilities.
In the final pages of the book, there were two detailed family trees which focused on the Rajapaksa family and the number of members who were present in positions of power.
Conclusion
The book was an eye-opening delight which covered the legacies of a corrupt leadership and how their short-sightedness can impact a country’s economic and foreign policy. The author has critically evaluated the leadership of the Sri Lankan governments under the Rajapaksas and connected it to the global scenarios at that time. The book did well in avoiding leaning too much into India or China, the latter being in the subtitle, it also covered about the other international players like the European Union, US and Japan.
However, there were some gaps when it came to the coverage of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government from 2015-19 as the main focus of the book was only on one family. The author could have focused on covering this government to set the tone for the comeback of the Rajapaksas and the repeal of the older policies. The book could have added a more economic dimension as I felt the book focused more on the security perspective in context of BRI.
In my opinion, this book is one of the better publications which gives the perspective of Sri Lanka in the current context and the political dynamics of the island nation.