B. Skanthakumar is a member of the Social Scientists’ Association in Colombo and an editor of Polity magazine. He is coeditor of Pathways of the Left in Sri Lanka (Ecumenical Institute for Study and Dialogue, Colombo, 2014).
The progressive alliance that backs Sri Lanka’s new president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, won a landslide victory in last week’s parliamentary election. The government has a clear mandate for change but now faces many obstacles to its reform agenda.
This month, Sri Lanka elected an avowedly left-wing president for the first time. The new administration will be caught between the expectations of its supporters for change and pressure from the IMF to continue with a destructive austerity program.
Last year, a protest movement in Sri Lanka stormed the presidential palace and forced the president to flee the country. It reminded many of the hartal strike action in 1953, one of the most impressive displays of working-class power in Asia’s modern history.