The chaos in Sri Lanka has deepened after the country’s president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, fled to the Maldives. The president and his family left Colombo on a military jet just hours before he was due to resign in the face of massive popular protests which culminated on July 9 with crowds of demonstrators storming the presidential palace.

Rajapaksa is believed to be headed for the United Arab Emirates where it is thought he will resign his office. Ranil Wickremesinghe, the country’s prime minister, has taken over as acting president and has declared a state of emergency. It is thought likely he will also resign under pressure from the Sri Lankan people who are blaming the country’s deep economic crisis on mismanagement and corruption among Sri Lanka’s political elites.

Over the past three months, the tiny Indian Ocean nation has sunk deep into economic malaise. Inflation is running at more than 50% and is expected to continue to rise. There are shortages of food and fuel and the country defaulted on its foreign debt in May.

There is also political turmoil. In this situation, the role of the army will come into sharp focus. There have been reports that troops fired on protesters as they stormed the presidential palace, but army chiefs insisted they had only fired in the air in an effort to maintain order. But many are asking whether the army will step in to run the government, at least until order can be restored and a new government formed.

Will the army take over?

But while military intervention might restore order to the streets, it’s unlikely army chiefs will want to take a direct hand in government.

There are two reasons for this. The first is cultural. There have been occasions when the country could have buckled to the rule by the military. These were the ethnic civil war years between 1983 and 2009. Many hold the view that it was the army which kept the nation from breaking up during this period before winning a decisive albeit controversial victory against the separatists.