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Thanks to the poor management of the country’s economy by  successive governments and deep-rooted corruption of the political  class, Sri Lanka has become ‘a lesson’ to other countries on how not to  run the economy of a state in the region.

For Malaysia’s former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad (97),  the Sri Lankan crisis is something very familiar since he oversaw the  re-emergence of Malaysia from its worst economic catastrophe during the 1997  Asian financial crisis. It resulted in the collapse of the Malaysian  curreny, Ringgit, which was peg to the US dollar.

Speaking to Nikkei Asia this week, he reflected on  the Sri Lankan crisis based on his experiences of handling the one time  struggling economy of Malaysia as a leading economic partner in the  South East Asian region. He rejected recommendations put forward by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and instead, adopted policies to  increase government spending and capital control to boost the economy.

“If you go to the IMF and World Bank, their only interest  is [that you] repay the loans. They don’t care what happens to the  country, politically or economically. They also want to take over the  running of the country and the economic policy of the country, which  means we have to surrender to them”, he said.

Mr. Mahathir told Nikkei Asia that Sri Lanka’s  present debt crisis is a warning to other Asian governments that they  must pursue responsible fiscal policies or risk falling into the hands  of an unforgiving IMF.

Sri Lanka’s major problem was that it had very little hard  currency reserves to use to pay its creditors, Mr. Mahathir said. “It is  purely poor management of the currency and poor investment policy.  Everyone is threatened with the possibility of going down the road of  Sri Lanka. … It is a lesson for all”, he pointed out.

“Thor: Love and Thunder”: No show for premiere as fuel crisis steals the thunder

Cinema-goers waiting eagerly to catch Marvel Studio’s latest blockbuster “Thor: Love and Thunder” were given a shock when it was announced that many of the showtimes scheduled for the film’s premiere on Friday (July would be cancelled due to a delay in getting down the film copy to Sri Lanka.

Many fans in different parts of the country, including Colombo, Kandy and Galle, had purchased tickets beforehand and were waiting to watch the movie on Friday. Many cinemas that were due to show the film, though, took to their social media pages to announce that their morning, afternoon and evening shows had been cancelled.

The reason, as conveyed by the film’s local distributor, was that it could not get down the film copy in time owing to flight delays caused by the country’s fuel crisis. The copy only arrived in Sri Lanka on Friday afternoon. However, night time screenings scheduled for Friday would go ahead, some cinemas said, whilst promising refunds for those who had purchased tickets for earlier shows.

PUCSL chairman sheds light on his qualifications

In recent times, Janaka Ratnayake, Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Sri Lanka (PUCSL), came under severe criticism from the public on decisions made by the Commission on power outage timeslots and implementation of it by the provider — the Ceylon Electricity Board.

He had made a startling revelation before a Parliamentary Oversight Committee this week on the fuel prices, a topic his office lacks the mandate to look into or comment about it, but the Chairman was careful to say that it was his personal opinion.

On Wednesday, he appeared before the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) and said that based on the data analysis he had done on import prices and taxes levied by the government, petrol and diesel could be sold at Rs. 250 a litre in Sri Lanka.

Taken aback by the remarks, the Committee asked whether Treasury officials or Commission staff were aware of his analysis on this vital topic that is crippling the country. COPE Chairman Charitha Herath noted that considering the importance of his statement, officials from the Ministry of Power and Energy and the Chairman are expected to be summoned before the COPE over the matter in the future.

Before the concluding proceedings, the Committee also probed on the educational qualifications of Mr. Ratnayake to become Chairman of the Commission. Mr Ratnayake responded that he had obtained a Special Degree in Public Administration from the University of Sri Jayawardenepura and a Postgraduate degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the University of Colombo.

He also said that he had studied at Harvard University.

Playing politics with pix: What was done for Gota then boomerangs on him now

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s decision to attend Parliament on Tuesday did not go according to plan. Firstly, he was jeered by opposition MPs with chants of “Go Home Gota” whilst he sat listening to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe brief the House on the present state of the country’s economic crisis. He then had to leave after the Speaker briefly suspended sittings due to the disturbances.

Possibly the worst outcome, however, was the image that emerged of him and Mr Wickremesinghe, seated side by side, smiling whilst seemingly sharing a light moment during proceedings. Unfortunately for them, on the same morning that the two were in Parliament, a 60-year-old man died in a fuel queue in Borella after falling ill, becoming the 14th victim to die in a fuel queue.

It didn’t take long for posts to appear on social media with the photo – two separate moments photoshoped to seem it was both smiling at each other – along with a photo of the victim who died in the fuel queue. The macabre posts noted that the country’s leaders were all smiles whilst its people were suffering and dying.

A similar post had appeared in 2019, not long after the Easter Sunday terror attacks. This showed an image from the infamous press conference fronted by several ministers of the then government soon after the attacks, where they were captured laughing at a joke. That image was juxtaposed with photographs showing the attack’s victims and their grieving relatives. Incidentally, those posts were used to successful effect by social media supporters of then Presidential candidate Gotabaya Rajapaksa to paint leaders of the then government as wholly unconcerned with the sufferings of the people.

What they did then on his behalf has boomeranged on him now.

Stepping into a land like no other with bikes and all

With the ongoing fuel crisis taking a toll on the daily  lives of all Sri Lankans, many of them were forced to switch to bicycles  to carry out their day-to-day activities rather than waiting in queues  for days for fuel. As one elderly gentleman put it, ‘what’s the point of  staying in a queue when there is a limited supply of fuel available?  Better to start walking,’

The sudden demand for bicycles is also reflected in the  local market with the prices of brand new ones skyrocketing from Rs  50,000- to Rs 75,000 in recent weeks. The prices of used bicycles too  increased sharply making it difficult for many Sri Lankans to afford  them in order to commute.

Considering all these, even the foreign tourists who visit  the country despite all fresh travel warnings issued by their respective  countries arrive well prepared. This week, a family arrived at the  airport with bicycles and with bike carriers for their kids. The  bicycles were part of their cargo parcel and the couple fixed it soon  after arrival and exited the airport.

Those who were waiting at the arrival terminal for their  loved ones were surprised to see the couple with their kids on the baby  carriers fixed to their bicycles casually leaving the terminal. One of  those locals who gathered to welcome his loved ones was heard saying:  “Welcome to Sri Lanka- a land like no other’, one of the catchy phrases  used by tourism authorities to promote Sri Lanka tourism abroad.

In the world stage Lanka’s crisis more than a mere economic crisis

It is no secret that Sri Lanka is bankrupt and as the Prime Minister recently declared in Parliament, “the country’s economy collapsed totally”. For the West, where this country owes billions to the Paris Club of creditors and banks through defaulted sovereign bonds, the country’s crisis is more than a mere economic crisis — it is geopolitical.

This week, the renowned US-based newspaper The Washington Post ran an editorial titled “Suffering in Sri Lanka: The US must help contain a debt crisis that could spread worldwide” It also indicated the “prospect that Russian President Vladimir Putin could use Sri Lanka’s pain to expand Russian influence over the Indo-Pacific region is one reason — apart from the human tragedy — for the United States to pay attention,”

“The upshot is that the United States should use its power as the IMF’s largest shareholder to help countries restructure their debts, but this will be much harder to do with a multiplicity of private bondholders involved and with China engaged in the equivalent of international predatory lending. Sri Lanka presents an opportunity for the Biden administration to fashion a rescue in conjunction with other members of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue — India, Japan and Australia. That could both mitigate suffering and show the entire Indo-Pacific that it pays to deal with the United States rather than China or Russia,”