Rajapaksa promises ‘tolerance’ for minorities

Bloomberg

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who won Sri Lanka’s bitterly contested presidential poll, promised tolerance for all religions and cultures in a nation where racial tensions have divided communities for decades.
“All minorities’ right to practice religion and culture will be assured,” Rajapaksa said at his swearing in ceremony at a highly venerated Buddhist site in the north central district of Anuradhapura. “Now we have a duty to rebuild the nation.”
The former defense secretary brings with him a family of strongmen that could shift the island nation back towards China, although he was quick to commit to neutral foreign relations. His government will not tolerate corruption, Rajapaksa said, noting the administration would be based on merit.
Rajapaksa, 70, won 52.3% of the vote, while the ruling alliance candidate Sajith Premadasa trailed with 42% at the final count, according to state-run television station Rupavahini. He will face a parliament led by rival and current PM Ranil Wickremesinghe,
potentially setting off another constitutional standoff that may not be resolved until parliamentary elections due after February 2020.
There are fears a Rajapaksa victory could threaten the country’s fragile democratic progress and see a return to the old authoritarian ways. Gotabaya was defense minister during his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa’s 10-year-rule.
Faced with a choice between the man with a reputation for getting things done at any cost and an incumbent government that’s drifted through the last four years with little to show for it, voters took a chance on Rajapaksa. He will inherit an economy in which growth has slowed to a more than five-year low of 1.6% in the quarter through June and a debt level hovering at 83% of gross domestic product.
“Gotabaya’s economic strategy is likely to focus on more populist measures,” as he prepares for parliamentary elections due early next year, said Akhil Bery, South Asia analyst at risk consultancy Eurasia Group.
“We’re also likely to see a much friendlier posture towards China, but not as antagonistic to the West as some might believe,” Bery said.