Sri Lanka remains in the spotlight. Videos of protesters invading the country’s presidential palace have been circulating on social media. It happened this month: On July 9, the Sri Lankan president fled his official residence, minutes before it was overrun by angry protesters. The prime minister’s official and private residence was also attacked by protesters. The president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, ended up announcing his resignation the same day.

Sri Lankan President announces his resignation after the invasion of the official residence

The crisis that Sri Lanka is going through is described as the most serious since 1948, by some international media, such as the British newspaper The Guardian.

Images made public by the Sirasa television network earlier this month showed angry protesters invading the presidential palace, which until then had been heavily protected by the military. The video is already known, the explanation circulating on Facebook not so much.

People broke down the door of the prime minister’s office and demanded his resignation. People tired of communist politics. The president resigned and fled to the Maldives. China has appointed an interim prime minister.”

The video shared in this publication shows protesters climbing the walls of the official residence of the country’s president, with the national flag on their backs, and is described as “the revolt of the meek in Sri Lanka.” In the comments of this Brazilian page there is a bit of everythingfrom congratulations for the popular uprising to messages addressed to supporters of Lula da Silva (former president and presidential candidate) and leftist parties, from the Workers’ Party (PT) to the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB).

The theory that circulates in social networks maintains that what motivated the revolution in Sri Lanka was the tired of “communist politics” allegedly practiced by the country’s political power. He goes further and accuses China of setting up a “caretaker prime minister.”

Sri Lankan uprising against “communist policy”?

The Sri Lankan people blame the government of former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa for the worst economic crisis since 1948, the year it gained independence from the UK.

As the British television channel BBC explains, in recent months the population has faced daily power outages and difficulties in accessing fuel, food and medicine. The difficulties are associated with the governments of the same family, Rajapaksa, which has dominated the island since 2009.

The video used in this post may be true, but the justification for the popular uprising in Sri Lanka — an alleged weariness of the “communist policy” followed in the country — is unfounded. In fact, Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected president of the country in 2015 as the candidate of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna Party (SLPP), founded by one of his brothers.

Known as the “party of the Rajapaksas”, the SLPP is now described by Asian political scientists such as Jayadeva Uyangoda as a right-wing conservative populist party that “favors authoritarianism”.

Former President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s party resulted from a split with the centre-left Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), leading another political scientist, Deshika Elapata, to describe the current Sri Lankan Podujana Peramuna as a socially divisive “party”. right and economically left. , based on nationalism and social democracy”.

He too accusations that China chose the head of state The Sri Lanka Provisionals have no support. Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected to the country’s Parliament, as provided for in the Sri Lankan Constitution. He is also the target of popular backlash.

Ranil Wickeremesinghe is the new President of Sri Lanka

The slogans that fueled the protests in recent months do not include criticism of Beijing’s interference in the country’s internal politics, nor reference to a system that is too leftist. But there are other relevant data that help to deconstruct the idea that the protesters took to the streets saturated with the “communist policy” supposedly followed by the political power in Sri Lanka. In an article that analyzes the current situation in the country, Aljazeera explains that one of the demands of those who took to the streets is to get the interim government to start working on a new Constitution that reinforces popular sovereignty, in a process ratified by a referendum. .

In addition, as explained in the same article, without an organized structure to lead the protests, the Union of Interuniversity Students (considered the student arm of the Socialist Front Party) and the Union of Socialist Youth have been in charge of invigorating the movement.

After the storm comes the calm?

After more than 100 days of protests that culminated in the ex-president fleeing the country, Sri Lanka now has a new head of state, Ranil Wickremesinghe, and a new prime minister, Dinesh Gunawardena.

The names change, but the protests continue. The new President is the former Prime Minister and the new Head of Government is a former ally of the Rajapaksa political family, of the former Head of State who was forced to flee the country.

To the Spanish agency Efe, the demonstrators assure that the protests will not stop here. “This is not what we wanted. Let’s keep our protest.” It’s the same scenario described by Sri Lankan migrants to the Observer, who remain skeptical of the new government. “It’s the same corrupt system. Nothing has changed.”

Sri Lankan emigrants skeptical of the new government. “It is the same corrupt system. Nothing changed”

conclusion

Sri Lanka is going through the most serious economic and political crisis since 1948. A Facebook post points to responsibilities for the “communist policy” that is being followed in the country. But it is not true. The daily power outages, the lack of fuel, food and medicine due to inflation are the justification for the protests.

The party that elected the president who was forced to flee the country, Gotabya Rajapaksa, presented as being responsible for the current state of the nation, is actually a right-wing conservative party that “favors authoritarianism”. The accusations that China chose caretaker head of state Ranil Wickremesinghe are equally untrue, as the former prime minister was chosen by Parliament to be Sri Lanka’s new president.

The protests are not linked to an organized structure, but it has been up to the student movements to energize the protests. Movements and organizations strongly linked to parties and social forces of the left.

Thus, according to the Observer classification, this content is:

WRONG

In the Facebook rating system, this content is:

FAKE: The main content claims are factually inaccurate. This option typically matches “false” or “mostly false” ratings on fact-checking websites.

NOTE: This content was curated by The Observer as part of a fact-checking partnership with Facebook.