Fleeing to paradise: rise and fall of the Rajapaksa dynasty

In the past few months, Sri Lanka has been making headlines on the news more often than not. Sadly none of the headlines has been on a positive note as the country has been in economic and political turmoil ever since the COVID-19 pandemic. While the headlines started with economic struggles surrounding the shortage of food, medicine and fuel, it soon turned into lengthy power-cuts as the country started running out of fuel. Soon enough, basic necessities became scarce and day-to-day life in Sri Lanka turned into a struggle as people tried to live their life in the few hours they had access to electricity. 

The frustrations that had been building up along with the economic issues in the country soon turned into protests as people of the nation started calling out for the fall of the Rajapaksa dynasty. What started out as peaceful protests calling for access to basic needs quickly turned dangerous as the police forces got involved. 

While many would expect the country to take a turn for the best within a few months, it appears that it took a turn for the worse as President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country along with his wife. With all of these events taking place one after another, one must wonder where it all went wrong?

Rise of the Rajapaksa Dynasty

The world might only be hearing the name ‘Rajapaksa’ in the last few months after the crisis in Sri Lanka, however, the Rajapaksa dynasty's political involvement can be dated back even before the country got independence. During the British colonial rule in Sri Lanka, Don Mathew Rajapaksa was a member of the state council of the country and it appears that the family has been involved since then. 

In 2004 Mahinda Rajapaksa came into power as president and ruled the country for around 11 years before losing the 2015 elections to Maithripala Sirisena. However, this defeat did not last long as in the 2019 election the Rajapaksa family was back in power with Gotabaya Rajapaksa being elected as the president of the country, bringing back the family dynasty into power. In addition to holding the position of the President of Sri Lanka, the family also holds nine ministerial berths which include seven cabinet posts in the government. 

One of the key motivators giving the Rajapaksa such predominant power was the passing of the 20th Amendment giving the President complete authority over the appointment of senior judges as well as full control of the Human Rights Commission, the Election Commission, the Police Commission, and the Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption. 

As we have all heard, with great power comes great responsibility meaning that the Rajapaksa family held a lot of responsibility when it comes to running the country at this point. 

Economic turmoil and the descent of the Rajapaksa rule

Earlier this year Sri Lanka was hit with the worst financial crisis it has seen in years as its foreign reserves plummeted to extremely low amounts causing the country to run low on basic necessities such as food and fuel. What made matters even worse is the introduction of organic agriculture causing a total ban on the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides causing the agriculture industry to plunge as production became extremely expensive. 

This additional cost of farming also came at a time when people were already struggling financially as the country was trying to overcome the negative effects COVID-19 had on the economy. The introduction of organic farming was an effort made by Gotabaya Rajapaksa to transition the country's agriculture sector to organic, however, the sudden ban on synthetic cheap and affordable fertilizer and pesticides backfired causing the country to land in a near food crisis earlier this year.

Such measures left Sri Lanka in an extremely vulnerable position - leaving the country asking for financial assistance to overcome the crisis they were in. In addition to this, amidst the food shortage, Sri Lanka was also going through a fuel shortage causing major disruption to people's livelihood.

The poorly thought out measures finally started protests all over Sri Lanka as people started calling for the resignation of its leader - with the chanting #Gotagohome. While these protests started off on the streets, people soon got restless due to the lack of accountability and action benign taken by the government and it soon escalated as the protestors broke into the home of newly appointed prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. 

Even after protestors kept asking the government to resign over their inability to overturn the crisis in Sri Lanka, they refused to resign until all parties agreed on a new government.

As the government kept pushing to stay in power, the protests kept on getting more escalated and on the 9th of July 2022, protestors set the prime minister's house on fire. By the end, at least 34 people including 2 police officers were wounded out of which two people were left in critical conditions.

Fleeing to paradise

While many were expecting the government to finally take some accountability, amid the crisis President Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country on a military jet. After pledging to resign on the 13th July 2022, Gotabaya fled to the Maldives, a country which does not have an extradition law with Sri Lanka - making it impossible to transfer a person back to their country if they have committed a crime.  Many suspects that Gotabaya fled to the Maldives due to the lack of extradition law, in case he is held accountable for Sri Lanka's economic crisis. 

While the Prime Minister had stated that the President agreed to resign as of July 13th, he still remains in the Maldives as at 14th July morning -  with plans to travel to another country in hopes of seeking asylum.

Even though Gotabaya undoubtedly sought peace after landing in the Maldives, it did not take long for the small island nation to discover that the Sri Lankan President fled the country and landed in the Maldives. The angry outburst followed right after the news broke as citizens of the Maldives as well as citizens of Sri Lanka residing in the Maldives took to the internet to express their anger towards both Gotabaya as well as the government of the Maldives. 

Using the hashtag #Gotagohome, people were expressing their unhappiness on the Maldivian governments' decision to let Gotabaya into the Maldives and called them out for providing security to a president who fled their own nation in the middle of an economic turmoil. 

The concerns did not just stay on the internet as people took to the streets to express their disappointment in the actions of the Maldivian government with some holding banners reading statements such as “Dear Maldivian friends, Please urge your government not to safeguard criminals.”

The protest, however, did not last long as riot police were quick to disperse the crowds and remove the banners, with one Sri Lankan being taken into custody. These actions by the government and the police were not well received by the citizens, with many claiming that the breaking up of the riot violated the freedom of speech act because people were only voicing their concerns about the government's decisions. The former minister of foreign affairs of the Maldives also took to Twitter and scrutinized the actions of the government.

After the President fled to the Maldives, the Prime Minister has taken over as the acting president, triggering further protests in Sri Lanka as many see him as a close ally to the Rajapaksas.