Sri Lanka: The rise and fall of the Rajapaksas
Mahinda Rajapaksa
What Sri Lanka witnessed at President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s residence on Saturday was a people tide. Protesters stormed the Presidential palace, swam in the pool, hijacked the gym, basically turning his residence inside out. Separately, President Gotabaya is in hiding. Rumours suggest that he is being enshrouded by the navy and is taking refuge at a military base. As confirmed by Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, President Gotabaya will step down from his position on July 13, paving way for further uncertainty in the island nation.
What caused the political fallout of President Gotabaya?
The anger against the Rajapaksa clan has been long brewing in Sri Lanka. At present, the nation of 22 million is neck-deep into the worst economic crisis ever. There is shortage of fuel, food and medicine, owing to the government’s mismanagement of the economy.
Since March, protesters have been rallying the streets, asking President Gotabaya to resign, for they solely blamed his government's glitches for the pitiable situation of their economy. But President Gotabaya put his foot down and refused to resign. His rationale being that he was elected by almost seven million people and that he was entitled to finish the rest of his five-year term that began in 2019.
Unfortunately, President Gotabaya was delusional when he thought that his image as the ‘saviour’ of the country against the LTTE in 2009 would get him through the current turbulence as well.
Rajapaksas at the zenith of power
The Rajapaksas are considered the biggest and the most nepotistic political dynasty in South Asia. After a humiliating defeat in 2015, they made a glorious comeback in 2018.
Their climb to power can be traced back to 2004, when Mahinda Rajapaksa was appointed Prime Minister during the Presidency of Chandrika Kumaratunga Bandaranaike. By 2005, he not only became a political heavyweight, but also launched an all-out war against the LTTE, with brother Gotabaya as his defence secretary.
In the Sinhalese south, the Rajapaksas were revered by the majority Sinhala-Buddhist community for disbanding the LTTE nexus. The Rajapaksas therefore considered themselves invincible.
Internationally, they were criticised for running the government like a family-owned business. There was concern too that the Rajapaksas were not sticking to the post-war reconciliation with the Tamil community.
What happened in 2015?
Mahinda Rajapaksa lost to the opposition in 2015 after his Cabinet colleague Maithripala Sirisena teamed up with rival Wickremesinghe.
Despite the defeat, he launched the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP or People’s Front) in 2016 as the party of the people, appealing to the majority Sinhala-Buddhist population.
Mahinda turned the tables in 2018 by making a comeback in local elections. The then PM Wickremesinghe was sacked by President Maithripala Sirisena and appointed Mahinda as PM.
A year later, Mahinda was not eligible to run for president because of the two-term cap on presidency. Finally, in 2019, his brother Gotabaya won the presidential elections. What gave impetus to his campaign was his commitment to secure the nation in the wake of the Easter suicide bombings that killed 290 people.
Coming to power, Gotabaya pledged to nudge the country into the path development and stability but ended up making some blunders that triggered the economic domino effect.
He announced tax cuts in 2019 that slashed the government’s finances. His poorly though out ban on chemical fertilisers and the pandemic induced lockdowns further pushed the Sri Lankan economy to its brink.
On April 12, after a slow burn, the Sri Lankan economy came to a standstill as the government halted payments to international creditors. With this, all hell broke loose for the country.