News: autocracy

"What I see is a slide into autocratic rule," said the head of the private Centre for Policy Alternatives think-tank, Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu. "There is a stifling of any kind of opposition and the arrest of Fonseka is the most conspicuous aspect of that," he told AFP. James Manor, a Sri Lanka analyst at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies in London, said Rajapakse seemed "intoxicated with triumphalism." "I think it's clear he wants to establish semi-autocratic rule," Manor said. "He won't dispense with elections or anything, but the way in which he will use his power will be extremely assertive and illiberal, disregarding the opinion of many in Sri Lanka who favour democratic restraint."