Sri Lanka under the Rajapaksa brothers: A timeline

Jul 9, 2022 - 23:30

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Sri Lanka under the Rajapaksa brothers: A timeline

Sri Lanka has been mired in a deep political and economic crisis and on Saturday the anger boiled on to the streets of Colombo. The country's president Gotabaya Rajapaksa was forced to flee his residence not long before it was stormed by a huge crowd of protesters.

The island nation of 22 million people has suffered months of lengthy blackouts, acute food and fuel shortages and galloping inflation in its most painful downturn on record.

Protests have long been demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, whose government has been blamed for chronic mismanagement of the country's finances.

Timeline of Sri Lanka since the Rajapaksa brothers took over:

The beginning:

Don Alwin Rajapaksa, the father of the outgoing prime minister and president, was a founding member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLLP). He was a two-time parliamentarian. Back then, at the helm of the party was SWRD Banadaranaike, another founding member and scion of a wealthy Lankan family. After his assassination in 1959, his wife Sirimavo took over.

In 1994, Chandrika Kumaratunga took charge of the SLLP. By now Mahinda Rajapaksa has spent two decades in politics. He served as Cabinet minister during Kumaratunga’s two terms as president. Other members of the Rajapaksa family – elder brother Chamal and cousin Nirupama – are also in politics. After Kumaratunga quit politics, Mahinda became the president in 2005.

Gotabaya on the other hand pursued a military career and rose through the ranks. After he retired from the military he immigrated to the United States only to return and join his brother as defense secretary.

Rising popularity

The two won enormous support among their fellow Sinhalese Buddhists for ending the country's 26-year civil war with ethnic Tamil rebels in 2009 and Mahinda was re-elected to a second term in 2010.

Led by the brothers, Sri Lanka embarked on militarisation of the Sinahalese-Buddhist majority. That was also when Mahinda inducted two score and more family members into various positions. There was large-scale corruption, reports The Indian Express.

About 70 per cent of Sri Lanka's 22 million people are Buddhists, mainly ethnic Sinhalese. Hindus, mainly ethnic Tamils, make up 12.6 per cent of the population, while another 9.7 per cent are Muslim and 7.6 per cent are Christian.

Minority groups and international observers accused the military of targeting civilians in the war and killing rebels and civilians who surrendered in the final days. According to a UN report, about 40,000 Tamil civilians were killed in the final months of fighting alone.

Mahinda pushed through a constitutional change to allow him to run for a third presidential term and called elections early in 2015 to press what he saw as an advantage, but was defeated in an upset by Maithripala Sirisena, who garnered support from minorities with his reformist platform and push for reconciliation.

Not the end of road

Mahinda Rajapaksa then unsuccessfully sought to become prime minister, and it appeared that the luster of the Rajapaksa name had worn off.

But with Sirisena's coalition government already plagued with infighting and dysfunction, on Easter Sunday in 2019 Islamic extremists targeted Christian churches and luxury hotels in coordinated suicide attacks, killing hundreds of people.

Amid allegations the Sirisena government had not acted on intelligence information, and a wave of Buddhist nationalism, Gotabaya Rajapaksa swept to power in a landslide later that year.

"The bombs catapulted him to victory in the 2019 election," Jayatilleka said. "The feeling was we need Gotabaya, we need his military experience."

He appointed Mahinda as prime minister and added two other brothers and a nephew to his Cabinet — Chamal and Basil. The latter is a political strategist who managed the economy under Mahinda. He recently quit as the country’s finance minister. Chamal was speaker of parliament when Mahinda was the president and is also a former minister of shipping and aviation. He held the irrigation portfolio until recently, reports The Times of India.

In 2020 Gotabaya pushed through a constitutional amendment strengthening the power of his office at the expense of Parliament. But by the time Gotabaya took office, Sri Lanka was already in an economic slump triggered by a drop in tourism after the bombings and a slew of foreign debt from infrastructure projects, many bankrolled by Chinese money and commissioned by Mahinda.

The China mistake

In one notorious case, Mahinda borrowed deeply from China to build a port in Hambantota, the family's home region.

Unable to make its debt payments on the project, Sri Lanka was forced to hand the facility and thousands of acres of land around it to Beijing for 99 years — giving China a key foothold directly opposite regional rival India's coastline.

With the economy already teetering, Gotabaya pushed through the largest tax cuts in Sri Lankan history, which sparked a quick backlash, with creditors downgrading the country's ratings, blocking it from borrowing more money as foreign exchange reserves nosedived.

The pandemic hit soon after, again battering tourism, a prime source of foreign currency. A poorly executed ban on importing chemical fertilizers in April 2021 made things worse by driving prices up before Gotabaya was forced to repeal it.

Compounding the problems this year, the Ukraine war has increased food and oil prices globally. The central bank said inflation was at 30 per cent in April, with food prices up nearly 50 per cent.

Economy collapses

Sri Lanka ended up defaulting on its foreign debts in April 2022 for the first time since its independence , and the country’s 22 million people started facing crippling 12-hour power cuts, and extreme scarcity of food, fuel and other essential items such as medicines.

Inflation was at an all-time high of 17.5 per cent, with prices of food items such as a kilogram of rice soaring to 500 Sri Lankan rupees when it would normally cost around 80 rupees. Amid shortages, one 400g packet of milk powder was reported to cost over 250 rupees, when it usually costs around 60 rupees.

Beginning of the end

1 April: State of emergency

Rajapaksa declares a temporary state of emergency, giving security forces sweeping powers to arrest and detain suspects, after a spate of protests.

3 April: Cabinet resigns

Almost all of Sri Lanka's cabinet resigns at a late-night meeting, leaving Rajapaksa and his brother Mahinda -- the prime minister -- isolated.

The governor of the central bank, having resisted calls to seek a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), announces his resignation a day later.

5 April: President loses majority

President Rajapaksa's problems deepen as finance minister Ali Sabry resigns just a day after he was appointed. The embattled leader loses his parliamentary majority as former allies urge him to quit. He lifts the state of emergency.

10 April: Medicine shortages

Sri Lanka's doctors say they are nearly out of life-saving medicines, warning that the crisis could end up killing more than the coronavirus pandemic.

12 April: Foreign debt default

The government announces it is defaulting on its foreign debt of $51 billion as a "last resort" after running out of foreign exchange to import desperately needed goods.

19 April: First casualty

Police kill a protester, the first casualty of several weeks of anti-government protests. The next day the IMF says it has asked Sri Lanka to restructure its colossal external debt before a rescue package can be agreed.

9 May: Day of violence

A mob of government loyalists bussed in from the countryside attack peaceful protesters camped outside the president's seafront office in Colombo.

Nine people are killed and hundreds more injured in the reprisal attacks that follow, with crowds targeting those responsible for the violence and setting fire to the homes of lawmakers.

Mahinda Rajapaksa resigns as prime minister, and has to be rescued by troops after thousands of protesters storm his residence in Colombo.

He is replaced by Ranil Wickremesinghe, a political veteran who had already served several terms as premier.

10 May: Shoot-to-kill orders

The defence ministry orders troops to shoot on sight anyone involved in looting or "causing harm to life". But protesters defy a fresh government curfew, which is rolled back at the end of the week. The top police officer in Colombo is assaulted and his vehicle set ablaze.

10 June: Humanitarian emergency

The United Nations warns that Sri Lanka is facing a dire humanitarian crisis, with millions already in need of aid.

More than three-quarters of the population had reduced their food intake due to the country's severe food shortages, the UN says.

27 June: Fuel sales suspended

The government says Sri Lanka is nearly out of fuel and halts all petrol sales except for essential services.

1 July: New inflation record

The government publishes data showing inflation has hit a record high for the ninth consecutive month, a day after the IMF asks Sri Lanka to rein in high prices and galloping inflation.

9 July: President's home stormed

President Rajapaksa flees his official residence in Colombo with the assistance of troops, shortly before demonstrators storm the compound, and he is taken to an undisclosed location.

Footage from inside the residence shows jubilant protesters jumping in the pool and exploring its stately bedrooms.

With input from agencies

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