New Delhi: In 2016, some unfamiliar scenes flashed on Sri Lanka’s news television. The wife of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa and his two once-powerful brothers were all taken in for questioning over a laundry list of allegations, including corruption and weapons offences. Soon after, when Mahinda’s son Yoshitha was arrested for alleged money laundering, a photographer reportedly caught the former president with eyes “full of tears”.
It was a big shift from just a year ago, when the Rajapaksas appeared to completely dominate Sri Lanka.
As the Sri Lankan weekly Sunday Leader noted in 2010, five years after Rajapaksa first became president: “(Sri Lanka) seems to have reached a point of one-family rule. Every aspect of our lives from the registry of our births, to the taxes we pay…and the documents we must carry in order to move freely is under the control of Rajapaksas. Their domination is absolute.”
Mahinda was voted out as president in the 2015 election, after a 10-year term marred by allegations of authoritarianism, sectarianism, nepotism and corruption.
What followed was an effort by the new administration to unravel the hold of the Rajapaksa clan over the Sri Lankan state. These efforts would soon fail, as the clan and their political network was too big to completely dislodge.
Less than four years later, Mahinda is back as prime minister after his brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, won the country’s presidential elections earlier this month. The family is in control again.
The beginnings
The Rajapaksas, a rural-land-owning family from the southern district of Hambantota, have been involved in Sri Lankan politics for decades. Mahinda and Gotabaya’s father, Don Mathew Rajapaksa, was elected to the erstwhile State Council — a precursor to the Sri Lankan parliament — from Hambantota in 1936.
After Don’s death in 1945, his brother Don Alwin Rajapaksa and son Lakshman Rajapaksa became members of Parliament from the two Hambantota constituencies in 1947. Alwin would go on to become the speaker.
While the family continued to dominate Hambantota’s politics from 1936 to the 1970s, a national foothold remained elusive. Following the 1977 landslide victory of the United National Party (UNP), which was founded by the country’s first prime minister Don Stephen Senanayake, the Rajapaksas even lost Hambantota.
The Rajapaksas retook their home turf in the 1989 elections with the victory of Mahinda and Chamal Rajapaksa from Hambantota. The family finally emerged on the national political scene in the early 2000s. By 2005, Mahinda had been elected President.
Mahinda and Gotabaya
Once in power, Mahinda appointed Gotabaya, a former Lt Colonel, as his defence minister.
By 2009, the two had achieved what none of their predecessors could brag about — the 26-year-old civil war that had ravaged the country’s north had been ended with the killing of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) chief V. Prabhakaran.
The scars of the conflict continue to haunt Mahinda over his government’s alleged excesses against Lankan Tamils.
As defence minister, Gotabaya had complete control over the country’s police, coast guard, and immigration department. In addition to the defence portfolio, he was also given charge of the Urban Development Authority and the Land Reclamation and Development Corporation, which allowed him to completely rebuild Colombo.
Meanwhile, Mahinda himself, continued to enjoy deep control over the state apparatus. “Mr Rajapaksa himself, besides being president, is minister of defence, finance and planning, ports and aviation, and highways,” a 2010 report in The Economist noted. “In all, he is directly responsible for 78 institutions.”
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The only family that matters
The two brothers, however, weren’t the only powerful Rajapaksas in Sri Lanka. During Mahinda’s presidency from 2005 to 2015, there was a dizzying list of Rajapaksas holding important portfolios and positions.
A second brother, Basil, was the country’s economy and development minister, and also held the wildlife, investment and tourist promotion portfolios.
Mahinda’s eldest brother Chamal rose to become speaker in the parliament. Chamal’s sons Shashindra and Shameendra served as the chief minister of the Uva province and director of the country’s flag carrier Sri Lankan Airlines, respectively.
Mahinda’s son Namal, who is still an MP from Hambantota, serves as chairman of Tharunyata Hetak, a youth organisation. His other two sons, Yoshitha and Namal, ran the famous Carlton Sports Network.
Other powerful siblings of Mahinda include his sisters Chandra and Preethi. Chandra has served as private secretary to ministers of finance and ports & railways, while Preethi is a former member of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Insurance Board.
Six of the Rajapaksas, including Mahinda and Gotabaya, currently face corruption charges.
Return to power
At his peak, Mahinda was accused of curbing judicial and press freedoms, and running a crony regime. Among other things, he facilitated a constitutional reform that which would allow him to serve a third term. He was also accused of favouring his own community, the Sinhalese, over the nation’s Tamil minority.
During the 2015 elections, a section of the Buddhist Sinhala vote, reportedly disgusted with the crony government, moved to Maithripala Sirisena, who succeeded Mahinda as President. Along with Tamils and other minorities, voters managed to oust the Rajapakasa clan.
But thanks to a host of factors, including a tricky coalition, Sirisena found it hard to govern from the outset. His problems were compounded by all the debt accumulated during the Rajapaksa years — it was as part of repayment efforts that Sri Lanka gave the strategic Hambantota port to China on a 99-year lease.
The Islamic State bombings earlier this year further reduced public confidence in the administration.
He eventually gave up and tried to pull a constitutional coup in October 2018 by appointing Mahinda as prime minister in Ranil Wickremesinghe’s stead.
Mahinda was subsequently asked to step down by the country’s top court, but is back in the post within months. The Sinhalese voters that had deserted the Rajapaksas, have now voted for them again.
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53 : 42 is a decisive verdict, confers legitimacy on the victor. The new President has said he will work for all Sri Lankans, including those who did not vote for him. Hopefully, that will not remain a ritualistic platitude. Countries are getting more divided, polarised, creating political gridlock. However, in the case of Sri Lanka, a genuine quest for harmony and reconciliation is all the more imperative. It should not be business as usual for the Rajapaksa clan.