Link to article: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/many-sri-lankans-flee-capital-political-leaders-meet-seek-solution-crisis-2022-05-12/
On May 12th, Sri Lanka appointed a new prime minister. Ranil Wickremesinghe, political veteran, has been prime minister 5 times before. But now, he must address the financial chaos and political divisions as he attempts to form a coalition government. In the past, he built relationships with countries India and China. Current crises in Sri Lanka have been proven to be difficult to fix, as they are in a severe economic crisis. Due to economic mismanagement, COVID-19, and rising energy costs, Sri Lanka has been running low on fuel and essential medicines while also facing daily power blackouts. President Rajapaksa has been trying to leave Sri Lanka while simultaneously calling for a unified government. People are calling for him to resign in a series of mass protests which even turned deadly before subsiding.
Before reading this article, I wasn’t aware of the crisis Sri Lanka is going through. Due to the Ukraine-Russian conflict, energy costs have drained state coffers leaving Sri Lanka dark and low on fuel. For the region, it is going to be important for Sri Lanka to form more diplomatic ties in order to help recover their massive losses. With this financial crisis, people are running out of money to take home for their families and themselves, which is causing riots. I think that the crisis should be the most important thing for the new PM to address during his time as a leader. As for the president, it would probably benefit the country if he just stepped down/resigned already.
This is important because of the lasting effects the crisis will have on the region. Also, it relates to class because it is a conflict within a state. Also, you could relate the mention of China and India as regional powers to class since China is considered a ‘superpower’ in the International Relations world. Also, to some people, India is a rising superpower. With these facts, I think this article was a good one to discuss in a blogpost and our class discussions.