The great white elephant of Sri Lanka

People power: People sit on the fence of the Chinese-owned Port City project as they protest outside the president’s office in Colombo. The country is suffering one of the worst economic crises in history. — AP

SRI LANKA’s president Gotabaya Rajapaksa has a fetish for fiasco. The Indian Ocean island is a basket case for several reasons.

Covid-19 decimated dollar earnings from tourism; the resulting increase in social spending ballooned public debt. Then came the war in Ukraine, worsening shortages of food, fuel and foreign currency. But the lion’s share of the blame must go to the strongman’s quixotic policies.