From when I was there in June, the first thing I'll say is that not everyone is going along with it.
Sri Lanka still hosts a very active, brave, and serious civil society, some of whose members have testified to you, and it has always impressed me, going there. Essentially, you go there and you're humbled quite quickly about what advice you can provide, because there's no shortage of Ph.D.'s running around Sri Lanka dealing with law reform or constitutional issues and what else. There's a lot of expertise there, and all those people have not got along. A lot of them are very critical. There are very active anti-corruption organizations in Sri Lanka, very active monitoring of elections organizations. There are very active organizations still working on reconciliation and on women's rights. There's a whole range of activities that people are pursuing, and they are not going along with it.
As for the president's constituency, to the point at which it appears that some of the people who are currently profiting may not be able to continue, yes, the president could be in trouble, because the profit is in fact intended for just a very small group. Insofar as the military—led by his brother, the defence secretary—is enriching the family and not spreading the riches more broadly among the constituency that supports him, problems that could arise. You saw that a little bit in the impeachment of the chief justice, which related to a personal and business matter that she had gotten herself involved in. A lot of the protest on the street by people who hadn't protested before was from a sense of “Look, if this can happen, none of us are safe”.
Having said that, if it came to an election, people might still back the president, but there are areas where there has been a backlash, and it could grow and deepen if the economic progress were not seen to be shared—at least among the constituency. They're not so concerned about the Tamils in the north, but the progress must be seen to be shared at least among the constituency in the south. There have been signs that the president is not getting the right advice on how far he can go with amassing political and economic power within his small circle.