How Sri Lanka’s President Went From ‘War Hero’ to Fugitive

They were once seen as heroes of the nation, the near-mythical leaders of warrior kings who defeated the separatists in a bloody civil war.

However, the last days of Sri Lanka’s Rajapaksa dynasty tell a very different story.

In the early hours of Wednesday, embattled President Gotabaya Rajapaksa made a hasty exit from the South Asian nation, days after thousands of angry protesters stormed his official residence, swam in his pool and demanded he finally go.

He was expected to resign later that day, but Gotabaya Rajapaksa did not wait to make him official. Instead, before dawn, he boarded a military plane leaving Colombo, the commercial capital of the crisis-hit country, and fled to the Maldives.

His departure is a historic moment for the island nation of 22 million people, which the Rajapaksas ruled with an iron fist for much of the past two decades before losing the faith of its adoring citizens.

“The sight of Gotabaya Rajapaksa fleeing Sri Lanka in an air force plane represents (the downfall) of this family,” said Ganeshan Wignaraja, senior research associate at British think tank ODI Global.

“I don’t think their legacy is positive. But Sri Lanka is expected to go in a new direction.”

With jubilant Sri Lankans still swimming in the presidential pool, singing in the presidential dining room and dancing around the opulent presidential gardens, it is clear that many share that optimism – at least for now.

What happens over the next 24 hours will do much to determine the country’s future, with Rajapaksa’s long-term intentions still uncertain.

The Rise of the Rajapaksas

As the country takes its first steps into its new era, experts say it would be good to consider what went wrong with the last one – starting with the rise and fall of the Rajapaksas.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa is not the first member of the family to be president. His brother Mahinda Rajapaksa, who like Gotabaya was widely considered a “war hero” among the majority population, was elected president in 2005 and achieved near-legendary status in 2009 when he declared victory in the 26-year civil war against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil. They are rebels.

That victory gave Mahinda Rajapaksa an almost inexhaustible well of political capital to draw on, and he would continue to enjoy a 10-year grip on power during which he was revered by Sri Lanka’s Sri Lankan Buddhist majority. He was popularly called “appachchi” – the father of the nation – and people used to bow down when he passed and fear for him when he was sick.

For much of his tenure, Mahinda Rajapaksa ran Sri Lanka as a family business, appointing his brothers to key positions; Gotabaya as Secretary of Defence, Basil as Minister of Economic Development and Chamal as Speaker of Parliament.

And while the good times passed, despite complaints about nepotism, the brothers remained popular. The country has seen years of growth, fueled by vast government borrowing abroad to finance public services.

But the good times were not to last.

Brief hiatus and return

While the civil war did much to create the legend of Mahinda Rajapaksa, it also contained the first signs of her downfall.

According to a 2011 United Nations report, government troops were responsible for abuses, including intentional bombing of civilians, summary executions, rapes, and blocking of food and medicine to affected communities. The UN report said that “a number of credible sources estimated that there could have been as many as 40,000 civilian deaths”.

The government of Mahinda Rajapaksa has always vehemently denied such allegations.

However, his problems began to increase.

Human rights concerns went beyond the war. Political opponents accused Mahinda Rajapaksa of giving tacit approval to far-right Buddhist groups, and Sri Lanka’s Muslim and Tamil minorities feared wider repression in their communities.

At the same time, anger over Mahinda’s perceived patronage grew as signs of economic trouble emerged and it became clear that there would be a price to pay for the government’s previous generosity.

In 2015, Sri Lanka owed China $8 billion, and Sri Lankan government officials predicted that the accumulated foreign debt – both to China and to other countries – would consume 94% of the country’s GDP.
That year, Mahinda Rajapaksa lost a close presidential election to her former health minister.

“Sri Lanka is a democratic country and people were shocked by the extent of the attempted patronage,” Wignaraja said. “This combination of (nepotism) and mismanagement of the economy…people were upset that they elected these people.”

This may have been enough to end a minor dynasty, but not the Rajapaksas.

In April 2019, Islamist militants killed at least 290 people in a series of bomb attacks on churches and luxury hotels. A panicked country turned to the only family they knew who had a proven national security record.

In November of that year, Gotabaya Rajapaksa was elected the country’s new president. And like his brother, he saw government as a family affair.

“The people have once again put their full trust in us,” said Mahinda Rajapaksa after a landslide victory in parliamentary elections a year later.

“We will fulfill their aspirations and we will always value the trust they have placed in us.”

Gotabaya named Mahinda Rajapaksa soon after.

‘Fell from grace’

Still, as with his brother, cracks began to appear in Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s presidency as questions about his government’s economic management continued to mount.

Experts say Sri Lanka’s economic problems were not entirely the government’s fault, but its problems were compounded by a series of bad decisions.

Murtaza Jafferjee, president of the Colombo-based think tank Advocata Institute, said the vast wave of loans that Sri Lanka embarked on to finance its public service coincided with a series of hammer blows to Sri Lanka’s economy, from natural disasters like heavy monsoon, man-made.

Facing a huge deficit, Rajapaksa has cut taxes in a doomed attempt to stimulate the economy.

But the plan backfired, hitting government revenue. Rating agencies then downgraded Sri Lanka to levels close to default, meaning the country lost access to foreign markets. Sri Lanka then had to use its foreign exchange reserves to pay off government debt. This affected imports of fuel and other essentials, which pushed up prices.

On the streets, the once-adoring public of Rajapaksa found themselves unable to feed their families or fuel their vehicles. Now, people must queue for hours to get gas, often clashing with the police and military as they wait. Supermarket shelves are sterile. Medicine supplies are dangerously low.

And it is the Rajapaksas they blame. For months, angry Sri Lankans took to the streets, accusing Gotabaya and Mahinda Rajapaksa of mismanaging the economy.

These protests began peacefully but turned violent in May, prompting Mahinda Rajapaksa to resign as prime minister. But his decision did little to quell the frustrations – and his brother remained in power as president.

For weeks Gotabaya clung, apparently reluctant to let the dynasty fall. But ultimately, he had no choice, as the luxurious home he used to entertain power brokers was taken over by crowds escaping the heat in its shimmering pool and picnicking on its sprawling lawn.

As Wignaraja pointed out, the images were a fitting end to an era.
“You have this idea that the ruling elite is living too lavishly, being too corrupt, and the average person is in serious trouble,” Wignaraja said.

“To go from being seen as a hero to being kicked out of his own home is unthinkable. It is a complete fall from grace.”

Iqbal Athas, from CNN, contributed to this report.