Tony Fang asked for the authors’ recommendations to solve the dilemma facing Sri Lanka, in the context of how to avoid a financial crisis, given the current macroeconomic imbalances outlined in the paper. As he saw it, the government was in a bind because a currency weakening seemed necessary, but would be economically harmful to many people.
Jayant Menon questioned how an “all-powerful” leader (Mahinda Rajapaksa) could have been thrown out of power in January 2015 election, given the government's control over the media and its vast resources. He also asked whether the ethnic minorities had been a deciding factor, and whether the election had been clean.
Jane Golley noted that the paper had begun with a claim that there would be “lessons for the world to learn” from Sri Lanka about “post-conflict economic management and regime change in a multi-ethnic country,” but wondered what the Sri Lankans themselves had...