On the eve of the month of April, a month usually associated with prosperity and celebration marked by the coming of the Sinhala and Tamil new year, the people of Sri Lanka took to the streets as they fought for their families, livelihoods and country. On March 31, peaceful protesters gathered outside President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s house as they demanded an end to the hardships faced by the public.

Sri Lanka has been facing a dire economic crisis since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 that has left the island without sufficient foreign reserves to purchase fuel, medicine, food and other essential items. The public is currently experiencing 13+ hours without electricity daily and have been queueing up for kerosene, gas, diesel and petrol for hours on end to no avail. The protest on Thursday night comes following a series of island wide candlelit protests that have been taking place over the last few months, and more protests are expected to follow. Effective April 1 the President declared a state of public emergency.

This declaration gives the president use of extraordinary powers that include but are not limited to the arrest and imprisonment of ‘suspects’ without warrants and severely endangers constitutional and fundamental rights to freedom of expression, assembly, association, movement, occupation, religion, culture and language. It is a move seen by many as cowardly and backward as the state of emergency usually declared for the protection of the public is being declared in this instance to protect the government from the public.

Since the end of the civil war in 2009 the Rajapaksa government has continued to label minority groups as ‘extremist’ and ‘radical’ to mask the many war crimes and continued discrimination and persecution that has been perpetrated against minority communities. Under the ‘notorious’ Prevention of Terrorism Act, the government has continually abused its power to target Muslim and Tamil communities in the island.

It is reported that there were over 800 detainees under the PTA between the years of 2007 and 2010, and the number has sustained itself all the way to the year 2022. Detention under the PTA has resulted in brutal torture and psychological abuse leaving the individuals who eventually do get released to deal with severe mental illness and challenges in day-to-day life. Time and time again, journalists, activists and ordinary citizens are unjustly detained for suspicion of “religious, racial or communal disharmony” which allows for detention without trial for up to two years. Such unjust arrests are met with public outcry leading to massive protests by university students and other groups. Over 600 arrests have been made over the last week under the PTA in the interest of “national security” as a means of silencing the growing protests and frustrations. None of this should come as a surprise. The PTA has been consistently used to crack down on dissent and target minorities, coming into play most recently with the Easter Sunday attacks of 2019 which led to the deaths of over 269 individuals. Failing to properly investigate intelligence provided by the Indian intelligence agency, those in power watched as nine bombs were detonated in six locations around the island. The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the attacks but there has been much speculation as to who was actually complicit. The Cardinal of the Roman Catholic church in Sri Lanka, Malcom Ranjith, has sought out the United Nations claiming that the tragedy was part of a larger political plot that helped current President Gotabaya Rajapaksa win the presidential election — he declared his candidacy within days of the attack and his campaign emphasized the importance of national security, which according to him was neglected by the previous government.

In this climate, the Muslim minority in Sri Lanka faced the brunt of the consequences that came with the promise of renewed national security interests. New regulations to the PTA saw the banning of 11 Muslim groups (majority local faith groups) and the institutionalization of ‘rehabilitation camps’ for ‘religious extremists.’ Over 125 Muslims have been arrested, some simply for owning items with Arabic writing on it.

Since then, under the "extremist" label, there has been a plethora of discriminatory practices that have ensued. These include and are not limited to hijab and burka bans, shutdown of over 1000 Islamic schools and a ban on Islamic items coming into the country. Continued Islamophobia led to the recent forced-cremations’ of those who died as a result of Covid-19. Despite evidence from the World Health Organization that burial of bodies posed no threat to the spread of Covid-19, the discriminatory practice only ended in March2022. Thus far the ‘Extremist’ rhetoric has been reserved for the justification of discrimination against minority groups. Today, it is used to define all those who are dissenting against the government and asking for basic rights — fuel, electricity, water.

Critics have largely attributed the crisis to continued corruption, nepotism and poor economic decisions that led to a severe depletion of foreign reserves. On March 8, the Sri Lankan Rupee (LKR) was floated causing an immediate depreciation and devaluation of the currency against all currencies, mainly the USD. Since then, the value of the Rupee has only fallen further leading to continued price hikes of all goods, and a black-market value of almost double the given rate of the Dollar.

After declaring an economic crisis in September of 2021, the government sought out loans from India, China, Australia and the United Arab Emirates and has an external debt of over 50 billion USD, with around 7 billion due this year. The blame has continuously been placed on the pandemic and the previous Yahapalanaya government even though the reason for the crisis is a result of corruption and poor decision making stemming from many governments before that, the Rajapaksas being at the helm through it all.

Following the violence that protestors met with on the night of the 3rd, there has been outcry from international ambassadors to the island urging both the protesters and the government to practice restraint. They have also urged those in power to ensure the protection of the citizen’s right to assemble and demonstrate peacefully. However arbitrary arrests have already been made and police curfew has been in effect every night since March 31. In a country that is riddled with corruption, violence and crimes against humanity, dissent plays an integral role in maintaining the integrity of democratic functioning to protect against the rise of militant authoritarian leaders such as the present regime.

Curfews, extraordinary gazettes limiting use of public spaces and social media bans have done nothing but aggravate the widespread frustrations in an attempt to put a muzzle on those brave enough to speak out. They have affected small businesses and community-led initiatives in harmful and irreparable ways. To the public, the message is clear — the government is too afraid to own up to its own mistakes and leaders would rather wage a war against their own people before facing the consequences of their actions.

Police brutality is rampant, and state sanctioned violence has become the norm for those who dare to speak up. Reports of torture and abuse have circulated on social media regarding the arrests that were made following the Mirihana protests as the president’s office released statements condemning the events and labeling those involved as ‘extremist,’ furthering the rhetoric that has been used for decades. From pandemic to pandemonium, Sri Lanka remains in a downward spiral with its citizens left angry, hopeless and betrayed. The rhetoric that has veiled the government’s discrimination for so long is being torn apart as those in power desperately cling to what is left of Sri Lanka.