The relation between society and the authoritarian presidential state envisaged by the Twentieth Amendment will debilitate constitutional democracy in another highly significant way, and that is by destroying what little remains of the unstated rules of civility, restraint, proportion, tolerance, and accommodation in Sri Lankan political culture.
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Sri Lanka’s powerful Rajapaksa brothers have secured a landslide victory in the country’s parliamentary election, according to final results. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Podujana Party (SLPP) won 145 seats and can also count on the support of at least five allies in the 225-member legislature, according to the results released on Friday.
In the last several months, (President Gotabaya) Rajapaksa has embarked on rapidly militarising the state administration. He has appointed a number of retired military officers to key positions in the civil administration, and his government has moved more than 30 agencies under the remit of the defence ministry… With each passing day, Sri Lanka appears to be edging closer toward military totalitarianism.
As India manages the fallout from its deadly clash with China last week—the first border skirmish in which there were troop fatalities since 1975—it would do well to take a step back and assess its broader regional situation. And if it does so, New Delhi would realise that its problems are by no means limited to Beijing: India’s relations with each of its neighbours are in shambles.
China’s amplified efforts to bolster relations with Sri Lanka have shifted the global order and left the United States grasping for straws to maintain its global prestige and relationship with the island nation.
South Asian economies had seen some of the world’s fastest growth in recent years, but there are also high concentrations of extreme poverty in the region. Poor or near-poor residents of India and Pakistan were already suffering from a series of regressive economic policies, so for them, the pandemic is the second of a one-two punch.
Has South Asia succeeded where Western countries have failed? Countries such as India and Bangladesh have imposed stricter lockdowns than the West—and earlier in their respective outbreaks. In that sense, South Asian economies should be commended for moving quickly in response to the shutdowns in other countries. With the exception of Pakistan, which for a while allowed flights to China, most of the region’s countries imposed strict restrictions on international and domestic travel.
Like the rest of the world, much of South Asia’s 1.89 billion population is now under lockdown to prevent the spread of the deadly coronavirus. While Western citizens can, for the most part, temporarily afford to follow preventive measures such as mandatory lockdown, social distancing, and self-isolation, these are tough options for millions of South Asia’s poor. Their tales of everyday struggle for food are well-documented.
Sri Lanka imposed a nationwide weekend curfew on Friday as South Asian countries escalated efforts to check the spread of coronavirus across the densely populated region of 1.9 billion people. South Asia appears to have been less hard hit than elsewhere in the world but the rate of new infections in Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka is accelerating with the total across South Asia passing 800. Seven people have died.
South Asian countries are beginning to see their first fatalities from the coronavirus outbreak, with COVID19 claiming at least six lives across the region amid a spike in cases in Pakistan and elsewhere. The outbreak does not appear to have reached the widespread secondary contact stage seen in Europe and the United States – and earlier in China and South Korea – yet, but cases are continuing to rise as governments across the region scramble to enforce social distancing guidelines.
