so having a very good evening, 19 year old olivia rodrigo took home 3 awards, booting for best pop vocal and best new artist. this is my biggest dream come true . thank you so much. don't say what amidst all the singing and dancing there was a somber note struck by a video appearance with eye ukrainian president, florida. mir zalinski, our musicians where body armor instead of the casino. they seem to that wounded in aust dos even to those who can't hear them, but them usually break through birth. oh no, no. beyond american music, a posthumous grammy was awarded to the legendary mexican mariachi artist descent de fernandez. oh, finally, there was a bitter sweet honor for the food fighters, one best rock album, best rock song,

and best rock performance awards. just over a week after the groups drummer taylor hawkins, died unexpectedly at age 50. 0, the band did not attend the ceremony. rob reynolds al jazeera los angeles. ah, let's take you through some of the headlines here now. jesse are now on kong, leda carry lamb as announced. she will not seek a 2nd time high. her successor will be picked in may lambs, 10 years. so widespread anti government protest starting in 2019, adrian brown has more from hong kong to move forward. the overall impression you get here is one of indifference and apathy to what has happened. because remember, the people of hong kong have essentially been disempowered when he comes to the election of the chief executive. that's because the chief executive is selected by

1500 member committee, which is carefully vetted to ensure they are loyal to china. that way, say, unless china can ensure that it gets the candidate it once on the winning tickets. more disturbing footage is emerging from ukraine. another warning, some of the following images might be distressing to viewers. they show violence reportedly committed by russian troops as they withdrew from their positions near the capital bodies of what appeared to be civilians were found lying in houses, alleyways and fields in s been there were similar scenes in the nearby town of boot. also close to cave ukraine and accuse russia of carrying out to deliberate massacre that killing some $300.00 civilians. as its troops retreated, says it has evidence of war crimes. moscow denies the accusations. iraq, a nation riddled with land mice and an expert dedicated to defusing them,

one by one. equipped with only a knife and a pair of wire parties, he faces death every day. but does his work make him a hero or a target? witness the d minor on al jazeera, protests shortages and a state of emergency. what's behind the dire economic crisis in for lanka? can the countries finances be salvage? what will the political consequences b, they aren't. this is inside stored. ah .

hello and welcome to the show. i'm sam is a than now. sure lanka is going through its worst economic crisis and morton 7 decades the countries usable foreign currency reserves have plunged below $1000000000.00 limiting its ability to repay loans. and traders can't get dollars to buy imports. while over the weekend the government imposed the curfew after violent demonstrations broke out. protesters are angry over unprecedented shortages of food fuel and medicine. but opposition parliament members have defied the curfew to march in the capitol summer, calling for the president to step down. michelle fernandez has this report from colombo emergency regulations are 36 are curfew, and special new rules. preventing people from gathering in public places failed to silence people's voices and protests like this. you're hearing the holland behind me all coming together despite the curfew to express their anger and frustration

against the current government. i mean, some of the signs, even within this group, it's go home roger boxer with 225. that's an odd to the $225.00 representatives in parliament. it says create a, we've a go home quarter. these are the sort of tag lines or slogans of this public demonstration that we're seeing across the country are not just here in the capital, colombo, but around the country. not the economic problems that brought shanker to its knees . and now directly impacting ordinary sri lankan in the form of skyrocketing prices, of their essential goods, rice doll, milk powder, as well as cooking gas of fuel. even those who have the money can't actually shows them they spend hours in long queues. and what people say is, while this is obviously not a she lanka, a sort of specific phenomenon, the world is facing problems after the corona pandemic. that the mismanagement by

the sri lankan government of failure to admit that it was having problems as well as corruption, has aggravated the situation. so that's why that is this anger and she lancoste trying. it's scrambling to try and deal with these issues, but they're in for the long haul minute fernandez for inside story. let's examine what turns frank has foreign debt burden into an unprecedented economic crisis. it's tourism sector. a major foreign exchange earner was battered by b easter attacks in 2019 and the pandemic. and now 2 countries that are vital to its tourist market are at war. russia and ukraine had been the 1st and 3rd largest source of visitors this year. a fail drive to become the 1st country to farm entirely organically also hurts food supplies tra, lanka was forced to import rice, the tea crop. the nation's top export was devastated, shrank once china,

a major lander to restructure its debt. and it secured $1000000000.00 relief package from india, the let's bring in our gas, they're all in colombo. how should the silver is a member of parliament? he represents the main opposition party as j. b. brovana fonseca, a senior researcher and the attorney at law with the center for policy alternatives . and w a which was dana, is a column, is that the daily financial times and a former deputy governor of the central bank of sri lanka, a welcome, a warm welcome, told me if i could start with harsha. so looking at it, what cause this economic crisis can be pinned on one specific factor? if i think it can be pinned on 2 factors, one is the president and totally unnecessary tax cut off 2019 december

revenue that would have come into the treasury. they fell by about one 3rd line, 3 london currency about 600000000000 rebates by year. and in order to fill the gap in the treasury, the central bank stock of printing money and that started a downward spiral in economic management. and we got downgraded by their credit rating agencies globally and shop their door to international financial markets that led to the government going into the reserves to pay back the debt. and that caused multiple problems in the macroeconomy. the specific decision was the banning off the import off chemical fertilizer which then led to in some places up to 70 percent of

the harvest being lost. so both put together and also a debt or hang problem that we had for a long period of time, created this toxic combination. ok. now mass, the quantum, perhaps not an entirely a surprise since of course you have present the opposition perspective that you know your highlighting there. the failures of government if i could bring in but vonnie, is it more deep rooted than simply the failures of this government? is it also a convergence of other factors that perhaps are outside the government's control? like let's not forget the collapse in commodity prices. the economic fall out of the pandemic locked downs, the 70 percent fall in tourism after the 2019 bombings, the rising cost of fuel because of the war and ukraine and so on, so forth for semi i think that might be nation, but ed,

roman i mean we, i christ board, the main reason why we have these crises is purely due to the mismanagement of the government. yes, there are the reason, but the government had an indicator that we re heading down the direction they could advocate. let me jump in here, i'm going to try and play devil's advocate to present the government suspected. what more could the government have done there when they've got all those other factors that i mentioned going on from a war in ukraine? the pandemic collapse in commodity prices. i mean there are limit to how much you can wave that magic wand when you're in government. well, let's start with one of the, the tax cuts that happened was in december 2019. there was information even at the time that that was not a smart mo, 2 and a half years later days now was slight realization. there was a mean space,

the policy in terms of the fertilize the band that happened also early on. and there was information from the expert saying this was not a smart move. yes, we need to transition to organic fertilizer, but you can do these things or when night. so in a sense that government from me so many things in 20192020 the re election cycles. but feel to be going their own promises. feel to listen to experts who are and why sing on mission is that would have been taken. granted the pandemic rece unprecedented challenges. but this was in 2020, 2022. we're still grappling with some of the basic fundamental challenges. one of the other things i would say is that governments want b c sion armor to take back a lot of cars from parliament. so under the 20th amendment, which was enacted in 2020, it's

a very executive heavy government right now. and whereas if you had a system where void the presidio and, and the parliament could work together, that would be also something that could have prevented on mitigated some of these things. so it's a very heavy executive given very powerful government. but they have failed to get very basic fundamentals steps that they could have taken because the warning signs are very early on. so now we are i to late. ok, let's bring in w a with you want to dana. so the result now is that we're looking at want power cuts, fuel shortages, food shortages, medicine shortages, and to that, of course, things like rising inflation. i think it reach 17.5 percent in february, according to the central bank unemployment rising to, i mean, how unbearable is life becoming?

for sure, lincoln's they look because you are reading correctly gone through the spoke are those 3 language to me. but i agree with more passion by when even they say that the kind of crisis has been mainly due to the what he asked made by the government as a result of this one here is sheila gas now come to an explosive position and all the people in the country, not only the common man industry, but all the people in the country have been heat in the us. as a last in their stomach, their purse has been heed because they have lost the income substantial part of the income. you wonder if it will have lost that because of the loss in deal. they are complaining that it's even weak activities and their stomach has been here we go so that i see who prices. so as a result, these type of a situation is a really, you know, further ground for the people to come with it. so they have been actually

hit by via the increase in the prices. because when you say that the current in place and 8017.7 percent, you know, as you know, pretty as a company by the department of interest at the state. but the brew inflation is much more than that because the food inflation is about 30 percent and the but will a well price index accompanied by the sales department has used the very low rate for the food category on the 28 percent. so like if you take the normal football foot by get a normal family with your master about say about 45 percent of their budget and the actual to inflation in terms of the percent percent that consumer price index is about 20 to ready to but but that is not the case, because when the people, how good dan, in a queue for long hours,

about 8 to 10 hours to get the i said to clements, we are good. and because both standing in that you also do the money place that the p and when we did all these factors into account that grew in prison into the land, guys that was a 100 percent. and that is why people have come to the street and the i d, d. and those are, you didn't have a spontaneous, they will not be in late august created by any political party. so it has spread to the work of the country and we are now witnessing it as, as at the worst today, or spring and harsher again was let's talk about the solution. harsher walter lang can be forced to turn to the i m f for a now the loan is that where the country is heading? well actually we should have gone, but i m f i at the end of 2020 at the very least. a perhaps earlier now going just to the i,

m f is not going to resolve problems because we are unable to pay our debt. so our debt needs to be restructured. our taxes need to go up. i expenditures need to be rationalized. our budget deficits need to be caught, then the central bank and the entire money to the board needs to be sacked. ah, including the government, new appointments need to be made and money been doing needs to stop. they need to manage the exchange saved inside of it so that people are able to purchase important goods. and finally, we need to make sure that the poor people in this country, the low income people be brought with disabilities. people who are, you know, finding it hard to make ends may have a social safety net so that these reforms can go through. so all of these things need to happen to stabilize the macroeconomy. and in a whole least stop touring effort needs to be on the take. and so essentially the

laptop needs to be reset. all right. but even if we do those sorts of things, but on the i mean is it enough? simply sacking officials and cutting budgets in austerity measures. now i'm sure lanka has something like $4000000000.00 us dollars in debt payments this year. it's going to need some money or it's going to default right. isn't that unfortunately what it's facing? yeah, i think the dead repaired man is a bit higher than full 1000000000, but i'll leave it to be konami's to come on bad. but the, the challenge is on my people and many, and actually as, as we speak and they speak to you, i'm facing a power cut. i mean, this is the new reality and sri lanka. is that the multiple challenges that people have to go through. and i think it's very want to understand why any civilian has to fees on a day to day from knocking to it. then shell food items to meet the sale,

to figuring out what time the park outside to trying to find for and one on the team that these very important to remember is we are now in a state of emergency. and i can't read her a, b, c now, because of a state of emergency, mean executive has a lot of, ha, i'm so these multiple challenges, the question is always going to be deciding and coming up with proposals. if you look at the last 2 and a half years since go deborah to plug the came into our as i mentioned before, they've been in a strong effort to consolidate power to a point of authoritarianism. in guy entry lanka, it's and now very important. in addition to addressing the konami challenges and the date restructuring, and structural reforms, it's also important to look at institutions, democratic processes,

wider sri lanka. keep going back to this notion of the emergency having to declare emergency at every any given time. because if he had systems in place, if he had it's 13 plays and the executive listen to these people and took note of this, we won't be in the smith. so it's a very, it's a, it's very much looking at the human side of this crisis. but also looking at the structural reforms that are well and that's going to happen in the short term in the media. it. so it needs to be known as a, not a way to start talking about structural reforms, of course, as we know very well. but on the, you're talking, you know, much longer term leeway would you want to dana, if the solution is long term structural reforms and strengthening of institutions in the short term. is there an alternative to i m f, money? how far can help an aid from india and china go and helping the country out until

it makes those sorts of structural reforms? is that a possible alternative solution? well, of course the, the don't go into i, you, me right now. so you learn case, not in a position to be continuous india, mine's not the for any mystery in c lancaster, india, china and all that confidence void. now i cannot feel that because the reason is that the help right? very short term, great, great to senior. and great, great, brilliant, able to learn how to undertake any board program. but of course, if you look at the total amount that the hm, i may not be in the list as pretty we even less than one months in particular to the same thing is to china because i had it in 1000000000, you are also equal to $1500000000.00, which would have been used only for importing goods from gain,

but they'll do just point w way. why would another i am i fly and be the solution? i think the countries had this is colleen ins, loans so far. why would this one work? really? of course, you know, we have to go make it very clear. i am, if you send necessary condition for a country to come out of an economy economy catastrophic but not yet countries that it, because i am, it provides relief to this in burbank to manage it better. so payments by providing a loan to the central. but for us to take it further and reach the long term economy sustainability we have to under the economy. why reform program that includes all types of, you know, reporting or national government issued uses by good central bank. and as i said, you know, the, when they're going to say, well, these things will have to be done by the government us here in the past. what happened was the 3, but not going to do it,

is that got the image flow and then they had just gone through the the heard of the events of payments crisis. but they failed to implement the reform program today or could be, i wrote. so the state also, we run the same risk if you just do not speak to our lord from the unit and ignore all other reforms that have to be, you know, undertaken by the country. now one important reform program which the i am, if for be sure that gave to see lanka. now under this article focus and was that i may have recommended that when i got into a bank, independence should be maintained by enacting the bill that had been drafted earlier that had been presented to parliament while after that the last bill was one of the ministers there and that particular it was shared by the administration, and i am a fast now recommended that bill should be immediately inactive. we would actually

insure the independence of the central bank at the depot devices on the internet activities that, that is right. how city laws, very strong, and he said one of the people in the back to be set, but we don't have to sac them. what we have to do is to ensure the independence of the central bank by enacting the bill that has been shared by the administration. and by doing that, what we do is actually we will make the central bank and agent of the government. we provide the product do and construct the word great. so the government right now, what happened is general bank has become a subservient yielding, had to what they were. the point here if the government is coming to the stock, that is why they did ok. let me bring in harsh though, and how should we ask the question this way, can we? should we not also be reaching the conclusion that neo liberalism is failing sri

lanka? i understand all the faults and failures of the government in mishandling the tax reforms in handling the farming reforms and so on. but when you have done the same thing 16 times and given the country 16 different loans and you expect a different outcome, does not say something about your thinking as well. you keep giving this money and getting the same outcome, but i need to correct one thing i want mr. be there other than i said is i am not asking the anti center man to be set. i'm asking that the entire money to be bored, to be replaced with money to the board that can bring in confidence. because days a crisis of confidence and all markets will fail. markets will become inefficient. markets will freeze if there is no confidence in the investors in sri lanka. so that's what i meant. but i want to go back to your question of the only, but only some. i don't agree because over the last so many someone did the that and,

and we started going to die m if in 1965, you know, you had different ideologies and we have different governments around this of this country. so somewhere social is sound when you're limited. so therefore, you know, you can just say it is the ideology of a particular government because various governments are not being able to build that fines that informs mr. video identity for too long. so therefore, one i believe is that we need to create what i call a so, so a market economy is a synthesis of economic liberalism and, and political liberalism, in that the markets are always when, you know, you have to make, you know, you haven't, you know, agree with the fact that no politician, not a book that can direct markets so to ensure the incentive structures are present in

such a way that the economy is driven on lead in a particular direction and bind to go liberalism here, mean social justice. and that is most important because people are able to survive . and it is embarrassing because we were a upper middle income country. and we don't need to back from various countries, 2c5xw5cw understood high. so let me jump in and let me bring in von, because i think we've got a about a minute left. can the range of punk said government survive talking about survival? bah, vonny. well, it needs to be more than so by me because i think be brought to a situation. it's not just a family or a particular government, and this is why it's so important for the government. but opposition for all state court is to come on what we think the president will have down and resign. well

that, that's up to the president, but there's a lot of pressure beauty even today, beside the curfew. people on the streets calling for his resignation for the family to leave a considerable, significant, high anger among the people for the me see not that the country be konami, the political situation by one family. and i think that needs to be very clear, please. on the government, but clearly the president and the family and by one person cannot address is the law. and that's why keep coming back to the needs to be systems in place and needs to be structured. otherwise, we're not going to be able to address these problem. all right, we'll leave it on friday. we are out of time, but it's been a great chat. let's thank con, guess how should the silver vonny fonseca and w way would you want dana and thank you to for watching. you can see the show again any time by visiting our website al jazeera dot com for further discussion head

over to our facebook page. that's facebook dot com, forward slash ha inside story. can also join the conversation on twitter. our handle barry's act, a j inside story from a sam is a then on the whole thing here for now. go by from the al jazeera london, bro, cost center t people, unprompted uninterrupted. martin, beginning of the pandemic to post. gosh, i had some b like wise nafrica being wiped out of journalist nestle. malik, and right to and political analysts. man john and me, abolla. people will say things like, we're not going to give axes because the africans will not know what to do with them. there is no continents where people have more experience with getting medicine into people's studio. be unscripted on al jazeera.

mm. oh, and i'm told stories in asia and the pacific analogies here on the bombardment and with the missile and see it on the road out there and meet your premiums to time and to stay. you will not surrender just like to fight the shoot. i had a train you 2 days ago, the show me how that works, and to defend the barricades and you documentary shows the ukrainian witnesses to war from the front lines, dispatch and defiance voices from ukraine on al jazeera. the heart wrenching goodbyes, loved ones, no knowing when they were united ticket, women and children heading west to relative safety, often leaving when behind among them. foreigners also trying to get out train rise of a free, but it's on a 1st come, 1st serve basis here at the bus station there only a few rides available and that's only due to surrounding villages. so people like

for me and rose, now need to find another way to get out of the city. but for now they, like many others, would have to reach in hope, hoping tomorrow is a better day. ah, hong kong lead a carry, lam announces she won't see, can all the term after a tenure that soil, some of the worst social unrest in memory. ah, hello, i'm sammy's a dan. this is al jazeera alive from dell hall. so coming, i'll talk of more sanctions on russia to reports of mexico's, the achieve. moscow says it's troops are not responsible for land cuz entire

cabinet quit says the curfew ends and the nation faces. it's was economic crisis in decades and hungary is primary.