According to BBC, AFP and other media reports, Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa originally planned to formally resign on the 13th, but fled to the Maldives on a military plane a few hours before resigning. Demonstrators still occupy the presidential palace. Willing to leave. Prime Minister Wickremesinghe, who had earlier announced his willingness to resign, became acting president and declared a national state of emergency, triggering more waves of protests.
Immigration officials refused to stamp
The president missed 4 flights to the United Arab Emirates
Sri Lanka recently officially declared the country bankrupt due to the economic collapse. As the head of state, the 73-year-old President Gotabaya Rajapaksa undoubtedly needs to bear the greatest responsibility. After months of demonstrations demanding his resignation and eventually occupying the presidential palace, he finally compromised and will officially resign on the 13th. It is reported that he fled to the Maldives on a military plane hours before resigning.
Rajapaksa is accused of corruption and mismanagement that bankrupted the country and triggered the worst ever economic crisis . He is also accused of committing war crimes while serving as defense minister. Analysis said that before his official resignation, he was still the president of Sri Lanka and enjoyed immunity from prosecution. He hoped to flee abroad before resigning to avoid the possibility of being arrested.
reported that Rajapaksa had tried to take a flight to Dubai , but was blocked by airport personnel and failed. Immigration staff refused to let Rajapaksa go to the VIP area of the airport to have his passport stamped, and he was unwilling to go through the ordinary queue channel for fear of being mobbed by the public. As a result, Rajapaksa missed four flights to the United Arab Emirates, and eventually he and his wife had to return to a military base near the international airport to rest.
Government sources revealed that a few hours before announcing his formal resignation on the 13th, Rajapaksa, who was still the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, left the country on a military plane. He, his wife and two bodyguards arrived in the Maldives on a Air Force aircraft and were taken to a place under the escort of local police, but their specific whereabouts are currently unknown. There is no legal basis to prevent Rajapaksa from leaving the country, and at the moment of departure, he remains president.
President Rajapaksa has not been seen since the protests. His resignation was communicated first through the speaker of parliament and then to the Prime Minister's Office, but the president has never made a public statement. In recent days, all of his information has been released to the public through the Speaker of Parliament and the Prime Minister's Office.
When demonstrators in Sri Lanka occupied the Presidential Palace, Rajapaksa escaped from the back door under the escort of navy personnel and left by boat to northeastern Sri Lanka. Rajapaksa, who fled in a hurry, left a suitcase full of documents and 17.85 million rupees (equivalent to about 1.5 million yuan) in cash at the presidential palace, which is now being detained by the court in Colombo.
Prime Minister and Contemporary President
Parliament will elect a new president on the 20th
According to the Sri Lankan Constitution, if President Rajapaksa resigns, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe will automatically become the acting president until the parliament elects the remaining presidents of Rajapaksa. candidates for the term. If Prime Minister Wickremesinghe subsequently resigns, the Speaker of Parliament must serve as Acting President until a new leader is elected.
html On the 113th, after President Rajapaksa resigned, Prime Minister Wickremesinghe declared a national state of emergency as acting president and ordered an indefinite curfew in the Western Province, including the capital Colombo.Previously, both Rajapaksa and Wickremesinghe had promised to resign. Wickremesinghe has expressed a willingness to resign as prime minister and step down after an interim government formed by all parties is formed.
The Associated Press pointed out that Prime Minister Wickremesinghe temporarily acts as president until a new candidate is elected, which may anger those demonstrators who also want Wickramasinghe to step down immediately. The situation in Sri Lanka has deteriorated again. A large number of demonstrators in the capital Colombo tried to break into the prime minister's office and demanded his immediate resignation. The police used tear gas to disperse them.
On July 11, the Speaker of Sri Lanka announced that Parliament would reconvene on July 15, nominate the next presidential candidate to the Parliament on the 19th, and elect a new president on the 20th, who will be responsible for forming a government involving all parties. The new president will serve until the end of Rajapaksa's original term in November 2024 and will appoint a new prime minister with parliamentary approval.
In preparation for the transition, Sri Lanka's largest opposition party, the United People's Power, is preparing to take power and has begun talks with protesters. With a quarter of parliament, the party is the second-largest political force after President Rajapaksa's camp and has been well received by protesters because it has refused to cooperate with the president. The party leader Primadasha, who ran for president in 2019 but lost to Rajapaksa, said he would nominate himself to run for president.
The end of family politics
The younger brother becomes the president and the elder brother becomes the prime minister
According to the Associated Press, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has fled, which means that the Rajapaksa family’s more than ten years of rule over Sri Lanka has come to an end. .
In 2005, his elder brother Mahinda was elected president, and his younger brother Gotabaya was appointed as the Minister of Defense. He also placed many family members in the government. In 2009, Gotabaya was dubbed the "Terminator" for suppressing the nearly thirty-year-old Tamil rebellion in Sri Lanka. Although the brothers were ousted from power in 2015, their ruthless approach following a series of suicide bombings regained popularity, and Gotabaya's reputation for decisiveness helped them return to power four years later.
In 2019, the Rajapaksa family made a comeback, and Gotabaya was elected president. This time he appointed his elder brother Mahinda as Prime Minister and his younger brother Basil as Minister of Finance, managing the country like a family business. They once again put relatives in charge of every important department, with key positions monopolized by members of the Rajapaksa family who often knew little about their jobs, and who continued to implement deep tax cuts to stimulate the economy even as the country's finances were already in jeopardy. The tax cuts have slashed government revenue as the pandemic devastated Sri Lanka's tourism industry, a key source of revenue, and then drained state coffers, triggering the worst economic crisis in 70 years and plunging the country into a country with huge debts it cannot repay and food shortages. Bankruptcy crises such as oil shortages. Many people blame the nepotism of the Rajapaksa family for the country's bankruptcy.
In May of this year, his brother Mahinda, who served as prime minister, and his brother Basil, who served as finance minister, resigned one after another due to this. Now, President Gotabaya has also resigned and fled to the Maldives. His younger brother Basil has also been accused of corruption. He has dual citizenship with the United States and has also left Sri Lanka and is expected to go to the United States.
It is reported that Gotabaya also has dual nationality. He immigrated to the United States in 1998 and worked as an IT technician. He became a U.S. citizen in 2003 and later returned to China to join politics and became the president.
"When there was a power outage for more than ten hours,
I prepared several power banks."
It is reported that in addition to lack of funds to import fuel and daily necessities, Sri Lanka's drug reserves are almost exhausted, and there are not enough medical supplies to perform surgeries. Local doctors warned: "Don't get sick, don't get injured, and don't do anything that requires you to go to the hospital. The operating room does not have enough suture materials and blood transfusion supplies, and even cotton and gauze are running out."
is engaged in B&B in Sri Lanka Mr. Zhang, who works in the industry, told a reporter from the Chinese Business Daily: "I am engaged in the homestay industry. First, business was difficult due to the epidemic. Last year, Sri Lanka began to open the airport to the outside world and restart the tourism industry. I originally thought that I would be better off, but now I have encountered the 70-year-old crisis. The most serious economic crisis, now B&Bs are no longer open, and they have been resting on their laurels."
Talking about the impact of the economic crisis on life, Mr. Zhang said: "The biggest impact on life is the rise in commodity prices, such as the price of eggs, which has increased five times. , the price of toilet paper has increased three to four times. There is also a power outage, which lasts for more than ten hours. Another thing is that I can't buy gasoline and can't drive, so I can only go out at home every day. Turn around.Many people queued for days but couldn't buy gasoline. I didn't queue either. I bought a bicycle two months ago and I ride it when I need to go out. Now that you have decided to stay here, you have to learn to adapt. "
However, Mr. Zhang emphasized: "Although many Sri Lankan people are currently protesting and demonstrating, they are very friendly. Apart from occupying the presidential palace to express political demands, they will not do anything to ordinary people, and social security has not been greatly affected. ” Compiled by Guo Ji, reporter of Huashang Daily,
