At the height of their power, members of the Rajapaksa family held all the key positions in Sri Lanka: President, Prime Minister, Ministers of Finance and Interior. But just when the clan seemed invincible, an economic crisis, which he himself caused, led to his downfall. Does this mean the end of the most powerful political dynasty in Southeast Asia?
Sri Lanka on the brink of chaos: Peaceful protests against the government turned violent this week as many symbols of power from the Rajapaksa family, in power for nearly 20 years, were targeted.
On May 9, an angry mob descended on the Prime Minister’s residence in Colombo, leading the army to carry out a pre-dawn rescue operation for Mahinda Rajapaksa and his family. The prime minister had already delivered a letter of resignation to his younger brother, the president, paving the way for a new « government of national unity ».
At the same time, in Hambantota province, protesters attacked the Rajapaksa Museum, located in the ancestral family village of Medamulana. Two wax statues depicting the Rajapkasa parents were destroyed along with buildings and the family home near the museum.
A situation unimaginable just two years ago. On August 12, 2020, an extraordinary show of force by the Rajapaksa clan was taking place at the Temple of the Tooth, one of the most revered Buddhist sites in Sri Lanka, located in the city of Kandy, the former political capital of the kings of the ‘Isle.
Elected president in November 2019, Gotabaya Rajapaksa had just won a landslide victory in the legislative elections and was sworn in with a cabinet made up of two of his brothers and two nephews.
Taking an oath during a religious ceremony was a family tradition among the Rajapaksa, a way of symbolizing their anchoring in this Sinhalese Buddhist nationalism which nourishes their power. While the fortune of the clan has grown steadily in recent years, these politico-religious ceremonies have multiplied on sacred sites. Civil servants, diplomats and journalists dutifully attended each inauguration of a Rajapaksa to a new ministry.
Concentration of power and mismanagement, on the other hand, had nothing sacred about them. When his new cabinet took office, the president thus granted himself the defense portfolio, in contradiction with the Constitution which prevents the head of state from occupying a ministerial post. His brother, the powerful Mahinda Rajapaksa, became not only Prime Minister but also Minister of Finance, Urbanism and Buddhist Affairs.
The president also appointed his elder brother, Chamal Rajapaksa, minister of irrigation, security, interior and disaster management. His son Sashindra has received a post as Secretary of State for Agriculture. As for the Prime Minister’s son, he inherited the Youth and Sports portfolio.
At their peak, the Rajapaksa seemed invincible. The clan could sign mega infrastructure contracts, amass fortunes and repress minorities and journalists without ever being held to account.
For many years, human rights defenders have denounced the repression, massacres, corruption and nepotism of Southeast Asia’s most powerful political dynasty. But their appeals went unheeded by an electorate ready to turn a blind eye to these blows to civil liberties, seduced by the cult of strong leaders who prefer action to compromise.
Today, the fall is all the more vertiginous for this family which held, since the time of colonization, an almost feudal influence on the country.
The current president’s father, DA Rajapaksa, was a parliamentarian representing Hambantota district. But it was his second son, Mahinda, who catapulted the clan to the heights by leaving his opposition leader’s clothes to put on the costume of Prime Minister in 2004.
Brothers in arms
A year later, Mahinda won the presidential election by a narrow margin in a poll marked by violence and a call for a boycott launched by the Tamil minority in the north of the island. A first victory for Mahinda in the bloody war which opposed it to the separatist movement of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
President Mahinda then begins to set up a mode of governance at the service of the prosperity of the Rajapaksa family, earning him the nickname of « chief of the clan ».
According to his biographers, President Mahinda tapped his younger brother Gotabaya, a former army officer, on the shoulder to tell him that he would become the next defense minister. Soon would be able to start a merciless war to « finish off » the Tamil Tigers, as he had promised his electorate.
The Tamil Tigers had however abandoned the idea of creating an independent state. They demanded more autonomy within the framework of a ceasefire agreement signed under the aegis of Norway. This truce was to pave the way for a peace agreement and end two decades of brutal civil war in which tens of thousands of people lost their lives.
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The Rajapaksa brothers, on the contrary, planned a military operation to wipe out the Tamil Tigers, with the support of a large part of public opinion. On the other hand, for the Tamil minority, a period of violence directed against civilians began, drawing condemnation from the UN and international human rights organisations.
Gotabaya is particularly suspected of being involved in the infamous episode of the White Flag, in 2009, when members of the Tamil Tigers and their families agreed to surrender to the Sri Lankan authorities, only to be massacred. The Rajapaksa brothers have always denied their responsibility in these events as well as in the numerous disappearances of civilians which marked these dark years.
The Chinese debt trap
This extremely tough security line skyrocketed Gotabaya’s popularity in the last presidential election, just as it allowed his more politically experienced brother to take the lead in the legislative elections the following year. But it was not security issues but economic ones that led the Rajapaksa clan to its downfall.
Short of foreign currency and faced with a shortage of petrol, power cuts and runaway inflation, the tide eventually turned for the Rajapaksa clan, as the people tried to survive the disaster their government had created.
Horrified by the flagrant human rights violations in Sri Lanka, Western governments began to cut their financial aid. Deprived of this windfall, the government massively contracted bank loans to finance the state budget.
The Rajapaksa have also increased their dependence on Chinese investment, falling into the debt trap. Symbol of these mega projects of dubious utility: the gigantic port built in the family’s hometown of Hambantota, financed by loans contracted from Chinese banks at staggering interest rates for an economically unviable project.
As the country’s debt skyrocketed, the Rajapaksa ignored IMF calls for debt restructuring, promising that Sri Lanka would be able to satisfy its creditors. Meanwhile, Basil Rajapaksa, appointed Minister of Finance since 2020 despite suspicions of corruption, inherited the nickname « Mr. 10% », in reference to accusations of embezzlement of public funds.
As for his nephew, the son of Chamal Rajapaksa, Sahindra, he was behind a disastrous decree banning the import of chemical fertilizers, which hit hard the agricultural sector, vital for the economy of the country. With the drop in tourism revenues linked to the Covid-19 pandemic, Sri Lankans began to lose confidence in the ruling family.
In the aftermath of the violence between supporters and opponents of the president, Namal, Mahinda’s son, admitted that the family was going through « a bad patch ».
However, some refuse to draw a line under the Rajapaksa. « It’s a name that still has support among the Sinhalese ethnic group [Relatif aux habitants de Ceylan, aujourd’hui Sri Lanka, NDLR]“, explains to AFP Akhil Bery of the Asia Society Policy Institute. “Although this situation is largely the responsibility of the Rajapaksa, their successors will have to inherit this mess, leaving the Rajapaksa a political space to occupy”
Article translated from English by Grégoire Sauvage. The original can be found here.
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