On July 15, Gotabaya Rajapaksa officially stepped down from his position as President of Sri Lanka. Five days later, parliament elected Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as his replacement. Mass protests have continued, demanding that Wickremesinghe also resign, as he does not have the people’s mandate, and has been accused of aiding the Rajapaksa family wield their dynastic power against the people.
Sparked by rising living costs, protests initially began to spring up across the island in March, and eventually found a center next to the Presidential (the struggle), this mass uprising has seen unprecedented support, particularly in the South, which has a Sinhalese majority. In the North and East, the issues at stake go beyond food, electricity, and fuel. The Tamil people‘s demands include the right to self-determination, the end of Sinhalese colonization of their homeland, and accountability for the war crimes committed by the Rajapaksas during their regimes. The Muslims of the East perceive the protests as buyer’s remorse, and say they already registered their protest at the ballot box. Indeed, as the South has continued to support Sinhala Buddhist nationalists, the North and East have voted against them.
