What Happened in Sri Lanka?

Political Power-Media Tension:

Dear friends, in the century we live in, people can now access information more easily. This situation deeply affects the structure, responsibilities and decision-making processes of the governments. Generally, political powers do not want their policies to be questioned, their practices and behaviors that violate equality to be criticized, the way they use public resources and alternative costs to be discussed. For this purpose, there is an unspoken tension between every political power and the media. This tension affects all channels of mass media. Alternative information, which is almost a prerequisite for the existence of democracy, becomes possible to the extent that this tension allows. Political powers may sometimes choose not to tell the truth. He can be successful in this from time to time and manage to show himself successful. However, as A. Lincoln said, you can fool some all the time, everyone sometimes, but you cannot fool everyone all the time (1).

Crises are periods when uncertainty increases and control becomes difficult. The first thing a political power that takes the responsibility of managing the state should achieve is not to go into a crisis. When entered, it is to be honest with the public, to take responsibility and to do what is necessary. In this context, I will try to make an assessment on the political responsibility of political powers, based on what happened in Sri Lanka.

Population and Economy in Sri Lanka:

Sri Lanka is 31 km from India. It is an island country located south of the Indian Ocean. Various ethnic groups live in this island country with an area of ​​65,610 km2 and around 21 million. "74.9% of the country is Sinhala, 11.2% Sri Lankan Tamil, 9.2% Sri Lankan Muslim, 4.2% Indian Tamil. The remaining 0.5% belong to other groups. Buddhists 70.2%, Hindus 12.6%, Muslims 9.7%, Christians 7.2%, others 1%. Ceylon is the dominant language in the country with 74% speakers, while Tamil is It is spoken by a minority of 18%. Other languages ​​are spoken by 8%." (2)

Cinnamon, rubber, coffee and Ceylon Tea are the main export items. In the country where the weight of tourism in the economy is very high, as of 2010, 60% of the GDP is generated by the service sector, 28% by the industrial sector, and 12% by the agriculture sector (3).

The welfare state, which was established with socialist policies implemented from 1948 to 1977, evolved into a market economy at a time when neoliberal policies were on the rise in the world.

Mass Protests Triggered by the Economic Crisis:

After mass protests following the economic crisis that broke out on the island, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country. When he left, he left the authority to the Prime Minister. A state of emergency was declared in the country. Protests began in the capital, Colombo, in April and spread throughout the country. frequent power outages; He complained about the scarcity of basic necessities such as fuel, food and medicine. Inflation, which was in the 10-20 band in January, reached 54.6 in June 2022. Fuel prices increased astronomically as imports could not be made due to the shortage of foreign currency. In late June, the Government decided to ban the sale of fuel for two weeks, except for essential vehicles. In May 2022, for the first time in its history, the country could not pay its foreign debt, which caused investors to lose interest completely and had difficulty in finding new debt from abroad. In such a case, the expected result is that confidence in money and the economy will suffer both internally and externally. As a matter of fact, it happened. The government's announcement that it could not obtain the expected income from tourism due to the Covid pandemic in this process was not enough to calm the anger of the people. Experts attributed the economic crisis to the Prime Minister's weak economic management. (4)

In the country where the army was called to duty to restore order, the people raided the presidential palace and prime minister's residences. President Rajapaksa, who fled the country, sent his letter of resignation to the Speaker of the Parliament via e-mail on July 14, and this resignation was accepted (5).

The country's new Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, temporarily took the Presidency as of 15 July 2022. Presidential elections are expected to be concluded soon. What is expected from the president who will be elected in such a critical environment is to show an effective management performance in order to get the country out of the situation it is in.

Why Do Protests Turn to Political Power?

What happened in Sri Lanka coincides with the crises in many developing countries. First of all, the country's administration's failure to take serious measures about the alarming economic indicators in 2021, after the problems experienced in tourism, deepened the crisis. In addition, the fact that the way of life of the administration in a country with a bad income distribution has moved away from the realities of the people must have put more strain on the people who are living in financial difficulties. After a certain stage, the people turned to a mass action against the government they considered responsible. As a result, the government responsible for the mismanagement tended to protect its own position instead of choosing elections, which are the safety valve of democracy, but it was only able to do this for a while.

The political discourse used to impose the desired dimensions of reality on the governed audience loses its validity with the emergence of reality. In this case, the political power either finds a new and acceptable discourse or tries to prevent the possible reactions of the people by creating a new agenda with the tools at its disposal. However, from the perspective of the public, it is not possible to hide a truth from everyone all the time, and depending on the dissemination of information, the public begins to understand after a stage that the real reason for the troubles they experience is the policy choices of the political power. The comparison to be made after this stage is how similar countries with similar welfare levels experienced the crisis. Of course, criticism and reactions will be directed to the political power, which is at the decision stage of public policy. The efforts of the political power, which bears the responsibility of administration, to avoid this responsibility can only mislead the people for a while. When the facts come out, the options of the government in policy choices will be greatly reduced.

Conclusion

The structure that regulates the public service provision of the state through policies is the political power. For this reason, political powers bear the responsibility of governing the state. This responsibility is also a responsibility to the people who brought it to power through elections. Political governments manage public policy processes in line with their worldviews, ideologies and beliefs. In other words, they manage and shape public service delivery in all its dimensions. Implemented policies may not always give the expected result. If the governments have no other agenda, then the political power acts honestly and tells the truth to the people. Otherwise, it is very difficult for everyone to believe that they do not have an agenda that is not told to the public. More detailed studies should be conducted on the events in Sri Lanka in this respect and necessary lessons should be learned.

One of the interesting aspects of the job is that news about Sri Lanka is scarce in the Turkish press after the increase in protest demonstrations. It is possible to obtain more precise and accurate information on this subject from foreign sources. This situation is actually related to the phenomenon that I want to tell. It is not possible to hide what is going on in the world today from the public. Even a government that takes the most prohibitive measures cannot prevent the public from accessing real information sooner or later. For example, it is a tragic effort in terms of political science to first associate the economic crisis with factors other than the administration and then try to ensure the legitimacy of the administration by stating that the same problems exist all over the world. Today, the emergence times of the facts that are tried to be hidden/distorted by the political powers have accelerated compared to the past. This means that political powers can only turn to such political discourses for a temporary period of time, possibly in order to gain time.

However, how he will use the time he has won may not always be in the hands of the governments. In developing countries such as Turkey, economic and administrative crises can always be experienced. The area where Turkey differs from other countries, and perhaps gets lucky, is that it is a country that can produce geopolitical value. If this geopolitical value is aimed at protecting the interests of certain individuals and groups instead of being used for the benefit of the country, then a real survival problem may arise for the country. Here, the responsibility of the political powers is inescapable. Coming before the public with a political discourse that this responsibility is absent will never change the truth.

References:

(1) https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/275126-you-can-fool-some-of-the-people-all-of-the

(2) https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sri_Lanka

(3) A.k.

(4) https://www.bbc.com/news/world-61028138, paragrafta yoğun olarak ilgili siteden yararlanılmıştır. 

(5) https://www.cnbc.com/2022/07/14/sri-lankan-president-sends-resignation-letter-after-fleeing-to-singapore.html