This year will require Dissanayake to practice the political tightrope walk more as he dabbles in measured politics and diplomacy while catering to public expectations, no mean task given the island’s cash-strapped status and the inherited economic woes.
Meanwhile, on Monday, the cabinet will receive a proposal to appoint a committee to review Adani Group’s wind energy projects in Sri Lanka. The projects focus on constructing wind power plants in Mannar and Pooneryn in the island’s North, which the previous administration approved. The committee is to review them and recommend restructuring where necessary.
However, in a highly precarious balancing act, Dissanayake will end up deferring matters like the Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement to enhance economic and technological cooperation between the two countries or fully implement the 13th Amendment, giving minority Tamils a measure of political autonomy.
Sri Lanka is still trying to emerge from an unprecedented economic crisis that imposed punishing burdens on the people. While balancing the geostrategic interests, President Dissanayake will be required to deliver on the economic front, ensure growth, offer relief for the poorer sections, deliver on specific promises, including fighting corruption, addressing rights anomalies and creating a long-term plan for complete economic recovery. His plate is more than full.
Back to Beijing. Dissanayake has to be sharper when tackling Beijing, the nation’s largest bilateral lender. China has invested heavily in Sri Lanka, and India has, too, and the competing interests need careful management. According to political scientists, the choice to avoid aligning Colombo to either power is a good start. Dissanayake will soon find out Beijing’s expectations of Colombo’s new administration.
It is known that the 99-year lease of the Hambantota Port and the port city initiative in Colombo has made Sri Lanka’s economy bleed. The pain of high-interest commercial loans will only be felt when the country starts repaying debt. Analysts expect the government to come under pressure amid growing geopolitical competition as geostrategic rivalries intensify.
As for now, his supporters are keen to see the island turn a new leaf, giving expression to the systemic change promised during election time, by tacking economic travails and the legacy of misrule.