Sri Lanka president purges his Cabinet of relatives

Sri Lanka’s President removed two of his brothers and a nephew from his Cabinet on Monday, in response to public outrage over the governing family’s mismanagement of a debilitating economic crisis and calls for his resignation.

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has presided over the island nation’s most devastating economic crisis in living memory, and his administration is preparing for urgent bailout negotiations with the International Monetary Fund.

Dozens of parliamentarians have defected to the opposition, and opposition parties have rejected the president’s request to form a unity government, despite his insistence that he will remain in office to shepherd Sri Lanka through the crisis.

Despite this, massive protests have erupted, with tens of thousands of people camping outside Rajapaksa’s beachside office for more than a week.

Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Gotabaya’s elder brother and leader of Sri Lanka’s governing dynasty, is retained in the new Cabinet, although eldest sibling Chamal and younger brother Basil, the previous finance minister, are not.

Namal, Mahinda’s eldest son, was also sacked. He was in charge of the Sports Ministry and had been regarded as a future leader before to the crisis.

The 21-member Cabinet is seven less than its predecessor, which resigned in protest of public fury over nepotism and corruption two weeks ago.

Ministers get multiple SUVs, a big cadre of bodyguards, and limitless gasoline, in addition to state housing and entertainment expenses.

Ali Sabry, the new Finance Minister, led a group to Washington over the weekend in preparation for Tuesday’s start of discussions with the International Monetary Fund, authorities said.

Sri Lanka is requesting between three and four billion dollars from the IMF to help it overcome a balance-of-payments issue and replenish depleting reserves.

Apart from significant shortages, the country is also experiencing record inflation and prolonged outages due to the government’s inability to import petroleum.

Last Monday, the government announced a default on Sri Lanka’s $51 billion foreign debt, and the Colombo Stock Exchange froze trade for the week to avert a market crash.

Rajapaksa’s parliamentary majority has been questioned following the withdrawal of previous partners from the ruling coalition.

The opposition has stated that it will seek to destabilize the administration in the coming weeks through a no-confidence vote.