THE SQUIZ
Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and PM Ranil Wickremesinghe have agreed to resign following big protests in Colombo on Saturday. Calm returned to the nation’s commercial capital yesterday after thousands of angry citizens descended on the city, setting fire to Wickremesinghe’s home and making themselves comfortable in the official presidential residence. Neither man was home at the time… Mostly peaceful anti-government protests have been going on since April over the government’s handling of the deepening economic crisis – the nation’s worst in 70 years.

WHAT’S THAT ABOUT?
Sri Lanka is bankrupt and has run out of foreign currency, leading to a ban on fuel sales for private vehicles. Food prices and medicine shortages have also spiked, leaving people hungry and sick. But how did they get there? Dodgy government policies are to blame. After he took office in 2019, Rajapaksa slashed taxes and resisted help from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He also backed a ban on chemical fertilisers that hurt crop yields as food prices soared. The pandemic decimated the tourism industry, a key source of foreign currency. And then the war in Ukraine drove up energy costs, leaving Sri Lanka’s economy in a steaming mess. Rajapaksa is in focus because he and his family have dominated Sri Lankan politics for 20 years – including his brother Mahinda who stepped down as PM in May. Fireworks went off in Colombo on Saturday night when Rajapaksa said he would go on Wednesday and that Wickremesinghe would follow to make way for an all-party coalition.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
There’s some scepticism that Rajapaksa will leave office, so analysts want to see how that pans out before getting too far ahead of themselves… That’s a sentiment shared by protestors who have vowed to occupy the leaders’ residences until both leaders officially resign. But looking ahead – it’s all about getting the nation’s economy back on its feet despite efforts to date (like giving government employees a day off to grow crops in their backyards…) doing little to fix things. The great hope is a deal with the IMF on a bailout package, and it hopes for a resolution to the political turmoil so talks can resume ASAP. In the meantime, there’s always cricket…