Let's bring in Ralph Hakim. He's the leader of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress who is allied with the main opposition joining
us right now. Good morning Ralph. Pleasure to have you on the show. I was wonder if you could just give us a sense of what the
situation is right now on the ground that we can talk about policy implications after that.
Yes that's great. Now you know what. In about an hour's time new prime minister is
also going to be sworn in. But last night after midnight the armed forces moved in to the protest site and removed all the
structures prepared by the protesters and then also forcefully evicted them. And that choice that's the current president is
now on a wall fight with the protesters. He had always maintained that law and order cannot be disturbed but then
peaceful protests would always be permitted. But however his actions that slide show that he is now determined to
be a little more oppressive really requires him to get
his premises cleared because he has to move into the presidential secretariat. There had been protesters had been
camping out right on their doorstep and had been preventing an earlier president from entering his office. Now though the
protesters indicated yesterday that diva voluntarily moving out but then having them in the vicinity. This
is somewhat nervous situation for even the incumbent president. So he has now decided to forcibly pull them out. In fact
yesterday he indicated this was his parking meters when we met him in parliament. He said that he will indicate a different
site for them and not they are currently camping. Profit. Could this lead to more unrest on the streets. What do you think could
actually transpire in the next few days given the mood in the country that he's now a constitutionally elected president of
the country. And no he has a constitutional legitimacy. He appears to be lacking political legitimacy because on the ground
the situation is different. However we have seen in even in the past when he was ordinarily
appointed prime minister about a month ago there was a shock because people wanted to see what that change would bring about.
As a matter of fact what they are looking for is some kind of easing of the difficulties that they are facing. In fact long
fuel before the petrol sheds and the scarcity of cooking gas and all the essentials is a serious problem. If president overcomes
that issue within the next few weeks he may not face problems. But however you know that Sri Lanka is a higher unionized
country and that a lot of public trade unions that had come out against Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe are. And I've always been
pointing out that they would continue with their protests. So we'll have to wait and see whether he is able to bring some
semblance of normalcy with the supply situation of essential items like we others cooking gas and the rest and particularly
containing the ballooning inflation in the country. So all this will mean and also then it also up the responsibility for him to
deal is rather a debt crisis. But that's the ironic thing though isn't it. We're waiting to
see waiting and seeing it at a time and place where there is really no time to wait because there are urgent things that need
to happen on the ground. And I'm curious from a political perspective. Or is the Muslim Congress open to joining an all
party government under the new president. If if if so why. If not why not.
This is a matter that the president will have to talk to all the opposition parties together. It's no point in the really as to
when he took over as prime minister. Some of us opposition leaders met him and told him that there must be a genuine
attempt to have some negotiations with the opposition parties which was not quite forthcoming. And he also warned him against
poaching members from the opposition to give a false sense of ISE party government by torching members from parties and
embezzling them too into taking cabinet portfolios that may not translate into becoming a proper party government. And that has
to be avoided. Let's see whether the president after being elected and being sworn in. Yesterday he took several steps in
trying to engage with US opposition parties in parliament and laying out some short term plans that he has. But clearly he can
grab within parliament for that. Opposition parties too can participate in parliament to committees in supervising
government position. Yeah so that's another name. But you can collaborate and propagate in extending some support
while being in the opposition. So these options are open to him. Let's see what party choose. Right. You know rather when these
protests first erupted in Sri Lanka I think there was a lot of I guess hope that there were kind of one united Sri Lanka people
that were protest rates of Buddhists. Muslims are all trying to kind of fight for one cause or at least one effort to protest
this government. And there was marking potentially some sort of turning point that maybe could be around decades of religious
and minority violence. I'm just wondering do you see any sort of impact on minorities under this new presidency now.
Well Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe there have never been in his previous incarnations as prime minister several times. The
failed Bangladesh has always been seen as somebody who doesn't promote polarization between communities. That's me as the
liability when it comes to his persona in politics that he has never promoted polarization among communities.
And in that sense much can be expected from him to narrow the base of divisions that have been created.
And also as a matter of fact the protesters themselves and decried the earlier regime's attempts to unnecessarily create
ethnic divisions in the country and promoting supremacy of one religion or ideologies. So in that regard I think we can see
some kind of improvement. But the problem is Mr. Running Become a Singer is boxed in with
a group of people whose ideology is these these predominantly different from his. Therefore how he would manage to rein them
in as he is that he's seen as a political CAC do when it comes to the majority supports in parliament. Right. He's a single
member of his party. So he's in a very unique situation.