Another day, another resignation in Sri Lanka - but this one tells the story of why the island nation's economic recovery remains so fragile despite unprecedented reforms.

The chairman of Lanka Sugar Company resigned this week, citing "continuing pressure from local politicians to act in a manner inconsistent with the law, regulations, and government circulars" that made it "increasingly difficult to discharge my duties in a manner consistent with good governance and institutional integrity."

Here's the twist: Lanka Sugar made LKR 8.74 billion in profit - that's approximately $27 million - and the company's accounts from 2018 to 2023 look solid, with projected five-year profits equally strong.

A billion people aren't a statistic - they're a billion stories. In Sri Lanka's case, that story is: even when state enterprises finally turn profitable, political interference ensures good managers can't stay.

This is the microcosm that explains Sri Lanka's macro crisis. The country declared bankruptcy in 2022, secured a $2.9 billion IMF bailout, restructured $17 billion in debt, and elected reformist President Anura Kumara Dissanayake who promised to end political meddling in state enterprises.

Yet here we are. A profitable state company. A chairman trying to follow the law. Politicians demanding he break it. The chairman quits rather than compromise institutional integrity.

The resignation comes amid a wave of similar exits from state-owned enterprises in recent months, according to discussions on the Sri Lanka subreddit where the resignation letter was posted. Each follows a similar pattern: qualified professionals brought in to reform institutions, followed by political pressure to make "accommodations," followed by resignation.

For international investors and multilateral lenders watching Sri Lanka's recovery, this is precisely the pattern that concerns them. The IMF's conditions explicitly require governance reforms and depoliticization of state enterprises. But old habits - and old power structures - die hard.

The chairman's resignation letter didn't specify which politicians applied pressure or what they demanded. That silence itself is telling - even in resignation, speaking truth to power in Sri Lanka carries risks.

Sri Lanka's state sector employs hundreds of thousands and controls everything from ports to airlines to sugar companies. Getting these enterprises to run professionally, without political interference, is essential for sustainable recovery.

But as Lanka Sugar's chairman discovered, there's a gap between reform on paper and reform in practice. President Dissanayake's government now faces a test: Will it back the chairman's stand for institutional integrity, or will it quietly replace him with someone more "flexible"?

For Sri Lanka's 22 million people, the answer will signal whether this recovery is different from previous false starts - or just another cycle of the same old story.