Let political parties learn to coexist
THE political chaos and civil unrest in Sri Lanka are not a catastrophe that happens at the spur of the moment, it was written on the wall for long enough to react or repent.
Sri Lanka is a multiethnic and multi-religious country, with a tourism-depending economy. Long suffered from inner widening crevasses and fighting against the manoeuvring of India, Sri Lanka saw economic death when a series of bomb blasts took and blew up Sri Lankan tourism.
Politicians kept pleasing each other and blaming each other and things went running till what we see today.
Alas, corrupt politicians and dummy democracies are colonial leftovers for South Asia.
It looks that the democratic and so-called political system is dysfunctional in South Asia. Kinship, heredity and nepotism cannot be taken out of it.
Individuals having no vision and perspective are making policies and deciding people’s fate. The venom of New Liberalism spread really fast in Sri Lanka and served the global capitalist’s perspective well.
However, in order to be a good kid forgot to redistribute the economic resources and instead put focusing on a regressive economy.
Today experts are discussing factors that brought these consequences, and the two most discussed theories are 2019’s tax cut and money printing.
I don’t buy the first one but can relate to the second one; the balance of payment deficit toward IMF triggers the idea of printing money and keeping the country functional.
There are undercurrents such as low production and high import ratio, Covid and no tourism, internal conflicts and Indian trade monopoly in the region.
Russian—Ukraine war and high-priced fuel consequently accumulate, and the state decided to brush the problems under the carpet and decide to run a country on a “day-to-day basis” philosophy.
Printing more money and pledging the last sovereign Bonds to IMF as a hopeless attempt to cling to the power was done under the pretence of saving the country.
Can we relate Pakistan’s situation to Sri Lanka? Last 42 months during the PTI government, similar practices were done.
PTI government took massive loans to pay the loans and this loaning and re-loaning vicious circle put Pakistan on the verge of bankruptcy.
The freefall of the US dollars decided by a US citizen that Imran Khan brought from IMF added to Debt default, and economic implosion.
Soon Governor State Bank of Pakistan Raza Baqir would depart to his next assignment somewhere in IMF, probably in the United States.
It was a suicidal decision of Imran’s government to opt for the 22nd IMF Program to seek a loan of US$6 billion, in return to add US$ 50 billion in debt to Pakistan! Too late now!! !
Experts are saying that Pakistan just have a five-month reserve after that we will see Sri Lanka in our streets.
I am not a hopeless person by nature, but facts cannot be ignored. The damage to PTI’s policies is irrevocable.
Imran Khan must not have been voted out by PDM, the timing of the vote of no confidence was wrong.
Imran Khan should have stayed in the office to face the consequences. The opportunity of a vote of no confidence has given him a bailout package and the new government is cleaning up the mess Imran Khan has left in the last three years.
His new liberal and the West-friendly economic decisions benefited IMF but Pakistan is not Sri Lanka, and cannot keep printing currency notes to survive on day- to-day basis.
Pakistan is a nuclear power with tons of liabilities attached to it.
Imran Khan’s bad diplomacy hampered CPEC and the lull in Pak-Sino economic relations expressed that there was more than bad diplomacy.
I believe that he tried to damage our relationship with China deliberately for a higher agenda.
All his nonsense about America and American conspiracy is a facade, in fact, he himself is a conspiracy against Pakistan. His ill will has a major role in the economic breakdown of Pakistan.
But I keep on regretting that he must not be thrown out of the office, he would let to see what he has done to this country.
Establishment for sure is regretting what this adventure has done to this country. I hope Imran Khan is a learning and an eye-opening experience for all.
For other political parties, it is a lesson that they must learn to co-exist with the establishment and Pakistan is not Sri Lanka, if the point would have thrown politicians into the river I would have been the first to say Hallelujah, but our so-called democratic front face is necessary for our survival.
So the lesson for political parties is to coexist and erode the illusion that politicians can save this country and the second lesson is for an establishment that no more lethal experimentation, because as one experiment is about to cost us our sovereignty by pulling the entire nation into civil unrest.
—The writer is a Prague-based author, columnist and foreign affairs expert who writes for national and international media.
