Editorial: Material hardship triggers avalanche of opposition

Unrest: Anti-government demonstrators taking part in a protest near the President's office in Colombo on May 10, the country's dire economic crisis. -- AFP

THE current widespread violence in Sri Lanka underscores beyond all doubt the potency of “the agony of the stomach” in the shaping of a country’s politics.

The fact that economic hardship in the main led to the countrywide anti-government protests in the first place over the past few months bears this out fully. Material hardship was the trigger to the avalanche of opposition to the Gotabaya Rajapaksa administration which later took on more markedly political dimensions.