Shaking It Up: Sri Lanka’s First Presidential Arrest Tests Its Revolution
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Shaking It Up: Sri Lanka’s First Presidential Arrest Tests Its Revolution
SRI LANKA
In 2022, mass protests known as the Aragalaya (the Struggle) broke out in Sri Lanka, leading to the ouster of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa – and other members of his family who had run, and pillaged, the country since 2005 – over the worst economic crisis in the country’s history.
The crisis had led to severe shortages of food, medicine, fuel, and electricity.
Two years later, Sri Lankans deepened their revolution by taking a chance on the Marxist-leaning candidate for president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, known as AKD, of the National People’s Power (NPP) party. AKD won the presidency and a historic parliamentary majority a few months later, riding the wave of public anger at elite corruption and mismanagement that they believed continued under Rajapaksa’s successor, President Ranil Wickremesinghe.
AKD promised more accountability and justice.
In August, he delivered via the arrest of Wickremesinghe on charges of corruption: He is accused of misusing public funds when he included a stopover in London to attend his wife’s graduation ceremony following an official trip to the US in 2023.
However, protests broke out immediately after the arrest.
One protester in one of the country’s two capitals, Colombo, told the Associated Press the government has failed to deliver on its promises to improve the economy and is now “trying to hunt down the political opponents.”
“We condemn the arrest of Wickremesinghe who has done so much for the country,” said Samarasiri Kuruwitaarachchi, 69. “The inflation is so high, people are suffering… so they want to suppress the opposition. We demand justice…”
Wickremesinghe – who served as president from 2022 to 2024 and was prime minister six times before that – is the first former president to be arrested in Sri Lanka and the highest-profile figure facing a corruption probe under AKD. More than 20 other former senior government officials are currently under investigation.
Analysts say the recent protests stem from impatience by Sri Lankans to see quick results and also encouragement by the old guard. But they add that the current leadership is fulfilling its promise to clean up the country, the first real attempt to do so in the country’s modern history.
“His arrest represents one of the most consequential moments in Sri Lanka’s postcolonial history (…) shattering the longstanding assumption that those at the top of the country’s politics remain forever beyond the reach of the law,” Thiruni Kelegama of Oxford University wrote in the Conversation. “(Sri Lankans) pay daily for a crisis born of elite misrule. In this context, elite accountability is not just symbolic, it is the bare minimum of justice.”
She is referring to austerity measures that are part of an International Monetary Fund bailout program, which was negotiated by Wickremesinghe, who is credited with stabilizing the economy following its financial collapse in 2022. These measures include higher taxes, subsidy cuts, and the shrinking of the budget by cutting public services that have left Sri Lankans struggling, striking, and protesting over the past year.
“My salary is about 80,000 rupees ($265)… It’s a serious struggle to manage day-to-day living expenses…,” said Nishadi, a nurse.
Still, economic recovery will take time, analysts say, pointing out that the current government has moved quickly to provide some relief from the austerity measures.
Moreover, they add, the president is making good on his promises to tackle corruption and impunity for elites, which could help implement a system of rule of law and promote investment.
For example, even though Sri Lanka’s top court ruled in 2023 that the powerful Rajapaksa brothers – including two ex-presidents – and other officials were guilty of triggering the island’s worst financial crisis by mishandling the economy, it ordered no punishment, leaving that up to the government. It did nothing.
Also, many of the current investigations into top officials began more than a decade ago but languished.
As a result, the elite are closing ranks, with former heads of state and opposition lawmakers – including numerous former presidents and Rajapaksa officials – openly showing solidarity with Wickremesinghe.
“(They are) calculating how to use the moment to personal advantage or for self-preservation – each still nurses ambitions of returning to power, including (the Rajapaksas),” wrote Himal Southasian magazine. “Many of them downplay the allegations against Wickremesinghe… as trivial. But this was not trivial for a country that was then and is still recovering from bankruptcy, with millions struggling to put food on the table.”
“There is a quiet fear running through Sri Lanka’s political class, many of whom have been accused of misusing state funds or flouting the law in the past, but have never faced legal consequences, that the wheels of justice could grind them down next,” it added.
Meanwhile, the ruling party also made good on another campaign promise last month when Sri Lanka’s lawmakers voted 151 to 1 to remove state funding for housing, allowances, pensions, transportation, office space, and staff support for former presidents and their widows.
During a parliamentary debate on the measure, Justice Minister Harshana Nanayakkara said that former leaders in countries such as India, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the US receive some privileges because they continue “contributing to the public good.”
“But what do some of ours do?” he asked. “They build palaces for their children and cling to power long after their terms end. What contribution are they really making to the country?”
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
Belgian Protesters and Police Clash During Strike over Austerity Measures
BELGIUM
Violent clashes broke out between protesters and police on Wednesday in the Belgian capital of Brussels, the second day of strikes and protests against the government’s austerity policies that have grounded planes and local transportation, and brought the city to a halt, Politico reported.
Some masked protesters vandalized the Immigration Office in Brussels and the offices of political parties. Others threw projectiles and glass bottles at police, who responded with water cannons and tear gas. Security forces reported several arrests following the clashes and incidents of vandalism and arson, according to Euronews.
The violence follows a union-led national strike against government cuts that began on Tuesday, the latest to hit Belgium since Flemish nationalist Bart De Wever, of the nationalist New Flemish Alliance, became prime minister in February. The government says that austerity measures are needed because the country’s ballooning budget deficit violates European Union rules, France 24 wrote.
Among the austerity measures criticized by protesters is a pensions reform that would raise the retirement age from 65 to 67 by 2030.
Trade unions accuse the government of not listening to their concerns and sidestepping consultations on labor legislation. They add that this is a violation of Belgium’s longstanding tradition of dialogue between unions and employers.
Still, the strike soon broadened beyond members of the union into protests joined by various groups, including doctors, students, teachers, and others. The grievances ranged from anger at stricter migration policies to the increase in annual tuition fees for schools.
The strike was likely the largest in a decade in the country. Meanwhile, police estimate about 80,000 people have been on the streets protesting this week.
Hamas Crackdown on Gaza Threatens Fragile Truce
GAZA/ ISRAEL/ WEST BANK
Hamas tightened its grip on Gaza’s devastated cities this week, clashing with armed groups and killing alleged gangsters in what the militant group described as an effort to restore law and order in areas where Israeli troops have withdrawn following last week’s US-brokered ceasefire, the Associated Press reported.
Hamas posted a video showing eight blindfolded and kneeling suspects, branded as “collaborators and outlaws” working with Israel, being executed on the streets. The clips, reportedly from Monday night, surfaced amid armed clashes between Hamas’ various security units and Palestinian clans in part of the territory, Le Monde noted.
Dozens of people were killed and others wounded over the weekend in gunfights between Hamas and fighters linked to the Doghmush family in the Sabra neighborhood in the south of the city, according to the New Arab.
And in the days leading up to last Friday’s ceasefire, Hamas fighters reportedly clashed with members of the Al-Mujaida clan in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Hamas’ moves, while celebrated by some Palestinians after months of chaos, could undermine the six-day-old truce now that all living hostages have been released.
The US-proposed ceasefire requires Hamas to disarm and transfer power to an internationally supervised body that has yet to be formed. “If they don’t disarm, we will disarm them,” US President Donald Trump said this week, adding that the process could be quick and violent.
However, Hamas has yet to fully accept the disarmament terms, arguing that more talks are needed. The group said that, while it is open to handing over power to other Palestinians, it does not want chaos to prevail in the process. It also argued that, while it is willing to surrender offensive weapons like rockets to a Palestinian or Arab body, it needs the small arms for protection.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the war will not end until Hamas has been disarmed, threatening the resumption of military operations. Israel worries that as the group remains armed, it will continue exercising influence in Gaza and could even regroup – even if an independent authority is formally in charge.
Another threat to the ceasefire agreement is the requirement to return the remains of all Israeli hostages in Gaza. On Tuesday, Hamas handed over four bodies to Israel, following another four the day before. Hamas had previously said it was unable to retrieve all of the bodies by Monday’s deadline.
However, the Israeli military said Wednesday that one set of remains returned by Hamas is not that of a hostage held in Gaza.
In response, Israel on Wednesday threatened to keep shut a key border crossing from Egypt to Gaza and halve the amount of aid allowed to enter the enclave, NPR wrote. The Rafah crossing, closed since last year, is to reopen as part of the ceasefire deal.
Still, aid trucks rolled into Gaza on Wednesday and Israel resumed preparations to open the Rafah crossing, Reuters reported early Thursday.
EU to Propose Tourist Rental Rules to Tackle Housing Crisis
EUROPEAN UNION
The European Union’s first-ever housing commissioner, Dan Jørgensen, said this week that the European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, will soon propose rules to target the “huge problem” of short-term accommodations offered by platforms such as Airbnb and Booking.com to tackle the “social crisis” of unaffordable homes, the Guardian reported.
Jørgensen, a Danish Social Democrat, has been tasked with creating the EU’s first-ever affordable housing plan, to be unveiled in December.
Also responsible for targeting high energy prices, Jørgensen said the EU’s affordable housing plan will tackle the “financialization” of housing, focus on tenants’ rights, and the role of state aid in supporting an affordable supply, EU Today noted.
The EU has traditionally remained out of housing policy, leaving it to national governments. However, Jørgensen and other officials believe the countries have “failed to deliver,” particularly in their ineffective crackdowns on short-term rentals, which have become “a huge problem in many cities.”
For the past decade, short-term accommodations offered on online platforms across European cities have been blamed for rising rents and for pushing local residents out of historic centers and transforming residential areas into tourist hotspots.
That has led to anti-tourist protests breaking out across Europe over the past two years, particularly in Spain.
At the same time, rising rents and mortgages have become a huge topic in national elections. In 2023, almost 9 percent of the EU population spent 40 percent or more of their disposable income on housing, according to the EU statistics agency Eurostat. The ideal amount, according to officials, should be lower than one-third of disposable income.
Now, EU officials are considering imposing requirements to build a certain number of affordable homes, modifying the rules to make it easier to offer subsidies or tax breaks to providers of affordable housing, and other measures, such as banning foreigners from buying real estate.
Meanwhile, some member states are also considering more radical approaches. Spain, for example, is planning a 100 percent tax on the value of properties purchased by non-EU residents.
EU leaders are scheduled to discuss housing at a summit next week.
DISCOVERIES
Primate Happy Hour
Humans might not be the only ones with a taste for alcohol: Wild chimpanzees seem to be getting a daily buzz without ever touching a bottle.
A new study analyzed the ethanol content of fruit eaten by chimpanzees in their native African habitat and found that the primates could be consuming the equivalent of more than two standard alcoholic drinks a day.
It is unclear whether they actively seek out fruit with high ethanol levels, namely, riper fruit with more sugars to ferment. However, ethanol is available via the different fruits they usually consume, meaning that alcohol is a regular part of their diet and likely was a part of the diets of human ancestors.
“Across all sites, male and female chimpanzees are consuming about 14 grams (0,49 ounces) of pure ethanol per day in their diet, which is the equivalent to one standard American drink,” study author Aleksey Maro said in a statement. “When you adjust for body mass, because chimps weigh about 40 kilos (88 pounds) versus a typical human at 70 kilos (154 pounds), it goes up to nearly two drinks.”
The team sampled 21 species of fruit at two chimp study sites, Ngogo in Uganda and Taï in the Ivory Coast. According to primatologists, chimps at these sites consume on average about 10 pounds of fruit per day, making up about three-quarters of their diet.
The team collected fallen fruit, stored it in air-tight containers, and then froze it to prevent further ripening. They collected samples on three different occasions and used different methods to test alcohol percentages – a portable gas chromatograph, a chemical test, and a semiconductor-based device similar to a breathalyzer, Cosmo Magazine explained.
All the methods reported similar percentages, and the study results found that the fruit had an average alcohol content of 0.32 percent by weight at Ngogo and 0.31 percent at Taï.
The most frequently consumed fruits at each site – which were the fig Ficus musuco, at Ngogo, and the plum-like fruit of the evergreen Parinari excelsa at Taï – had the highest alcohol content.
“If the chimps are randomly sampling ripe fruit, then that’s going to be their average consumption rate, independent of any preference for ethanol,” said study author Robert Dudley. “But if they are preferring riper and/or more sugar-rich fruits, then this is a conservative lower limit for the likely rate of ethanol ingestion.”
Researchers observed that fruit consumption occurs throughout the day and that the chimps did not show overt signs of intoxication.
Chronic low-level exposure indicates that the common ancestors of humans and chimps were also exposed to daily alcohol intake from fermenting fruit, a nutrient that is now missing from the diets of captive chimps and many humans.
“Chimpanzees consume a similar amount of alcohol to what we might (have) if we ate fermented food daily,” Maro said. “Human attraction to alcohol probably arose from this dietary heritage of our common ancestor with chimpanzees.”
Dudley – who, 20 years ago, first hypothesized that humans inherited their alcoholic taste buds from primate ancestors – published a study on birds this year where the feathers of 10 out of 17 species they analyzed showed they likely had substantial amounts of ethanol in their diet.
“The consumption of ethanol is not limited to primates,” says Dudley. “It’s more characteristic of all fruit-eating animals and, in some cases, nectar-feeding animals.”
Dudley believes animals may gravitate toward ethanol-rich food due to its distinct smell, as it helps them find food with higher sugar content, which provides them with more energy. Moreover, it is possible that sharing alcoholic fruit has a social function among primates, just as it does for humans.