Gotabaya Rajapaksa
Who was Gotabaya Rajapaksa?
Former military officer and brother of Mahinda Rajapaksa who served as President from 2019-2022 before fleeing the country amid economic crisis and mass protests.
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Gotabaya Rajapaksa (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Nandasena Gotabaya Rajapaksa, born on June 20, 1949, in Sri Lanka's Matara District, came from a well-known political family. He attended Ananda College in Colombo and joined the Ceylon Army in April 1971, training at the Army Training Centre in Diyatalawa. Starting as a signals officer, he later served in several infantry regiments, including the elite Gajaba Regiment. His military service included major operations like the Vadamarachchi Operation, Operation Strike Hard, and Operation Thrividha Balaya, as well as counterinsurgency efforts during the 1987–1989 JVP insurrection. He continued his military education at the Defence Services Staff College and earned honors like the Rana Wickrama Padakkama, Rana Sura Padakkama, Vadamarachchi Operation Medal, and the North and East Operations Medal for his service.
After leaving the military, Rajapaksa moved to the United States, working in IT and becoming an American citizen. He returned to Sri Lanka when his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa became president. Renouncing his U.S. citizenship, he became Secretary to the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development from 2005 to 2015. He played a key and often disputed role in the Sri Lankan Civil War's final stages, leading the military campaign against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in May 2009. His time in office faced serious accusations of human rights violations, which he denied. In December 2006, he survived a Tamil Tiger suicide bomber's assassination attempt.
After his brother's defeat in 2015, Rajapaksa left government and faced legal challenges over alleged financial issues and rights abuses. He returned to public life as a presidential candidate in 2019 with the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna party, focusing on national security and Sinhalese Buddhist themes. He won the election on November 16, 2019, and was sworn in as the eighth president of Sri Lanka on November 18, 2019, becoming the first president with a solely military and civil service background and no previous elected office experience.
His presidency faced criticism for poor decision-making. His government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, along with poorly timed tax cuts, excessive money printing, and a sudden nationwide chemical fertilizer ban that damaged agriculture, led to a severe economic crisis. By 2022, Sri Lanka had exhausted its foreign exchange reserves, facing severe shortages of fuel, medicine, and food, and defaulted on its sovereign debt for the first time. Public anger over these issues led to the Aragalaya protest movement. In July 2022, protesters stormed the presidential residence and other government buildings. Rajapaksa fled to the Maldives, then Singapore, and resigned on July 14, 2022, becoming the first Sri Lankan president to resign while being abroad.
Before Fame
Gotabaya Rajapaksa grew up in a family with strong ties to Sri Lankan politics; his father, D. A. Rajapaksa, was a member of parliament, and their connection to the Southern Province put them in a community with strong nationalist traditions. He went to Ananda College, a top Buddhist school in Colombo, which influenced his cultural and ideological views during a time of significant ethnic and political tension in Sri Lanka after it gained independence.
His early military career developed as the country was dealing with insurgency and the beginnings of the civil conflict that would shape Sri Lanka for many years. He joined the Ceylon Army in 1971, the same year as the first JVP uprising, and moved up the ranks during a time when the military was growing quickly and facing internal threats. His experience in the north and east of the country during the Tamil insurgency of the 1980s earned him a reputation as a dedicated and aggressive officer. This later influenced his approach when he became Defence Secretary under his brother's administration.
Key Achievements
- Served as Secretary to the Ministry of Defence from 2005 to 2015, overseeing the military campaign that ended the Sri Lankan Civil War with the defeat of the LTTE in 2009.
- Elected eighth president of Sri Lanka in November 2019, becoming the first president with a military rather than elected political background.
- Received multiple high military honours including the Rana Wickrama Padakkama and Rana Sura Padakkama for service during major combat operations.
- Participated in several significant military operations during the civil conflict, including the Vadamarachchi Operation in the late 1980s.
- Survived a high-profile assassination attempt by an LTTE suicide bomber in 2006, continuing in his role as Defence Secretary throughout a period of intense conflict.
Did You Know?
- 01.Rajapaksa held dual Sri Lankan and American citizenship for several years before renouncing his US citizenship in order to serve as Defence Secretary, as Sri Lankan law prohibited dual citizens from holding public office.
- 02.He survived a suicide bombing in December 2006 when a Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam cadre detonated an explosive device near his convoy in Colombo, killing several people nearby.
- 03.His sudden nationwide ban on chemical fertilizers in April 2021, justified on organic farming grounds, resulted in a dramatic collapse in rice and tea yields and is widely cited as a direct contributor to the subsequent food crisis.
- 04.When protesters stormed the presidential palace in Colombo on 9 July 2022, photographs and videos of ordinary citizens swimming in the presidential pool and cooking in the presidential kitchen were widely shared and became defining images of the political upheaval.
- 05.He is one of the few heads of state in recent history to have formally resigned while physically outside his own country, submitting his resignation letter from Singapore via email to the Speaker of Parliament.
Family & Personal Life
Awards & Honors
| Award | Year | Details |
|---|---|---|
| Rana Wickrama Padakkama | — | — |
| Rana Sura Padakkama | — | — |
| Desha Putra Sammanaya | — | — |
| Eastern Humanitarian Operations Medal | — | — |
| Northern Humanitarian Operations Medal | — | — |
| Purna Bhumi Padakkama | — | — |
| North and East Operations Medal | — | — |
| Vadamarachchi Operation Medal | — | — |
| Sri Lanka Armed Services Long Service Medal | — | — |
| President's Inauguration Medal | — | — |