In South Asia, no other political dynasty has been as confidently nepotistic. [169] The Anti-Corruption Unit led by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe included a high-powered "rapid response team" to look into corrupt land transactions, stock market price-fixing, and the abuse of state funds for political purposes by the Rajapaksa family and the close associates of Mahinda Rajapaksa. [2][8], During Rajapaksa's political career, he has been accused of multiple crimes including war crimes during the last years of the Sri Lankan civil war as well as other criminal accusations including human rights violations during his presidency, corruption and for instigating violence on anti-government protestors on 9 May 2022. [15][16], Rajapaksa contested the 1970 general elections as the SLFP candidate for the Beliatta constituency and was elected to the House of Representatives having gained 23,103 votes against his rival Dr Ranjit Atapattu from the United National Party (UNP) who gained 16,477. The writing is the on the wall! On 3 December 2018, a court suspended Rajapaksa's powers as Prime Minister, ruling that his cabinet could not function until establishing its legitimacy. [149][150] Their firm grip of power was consolidated in parliamentary elections in August 2020. With his teacher wife and five-year-old daughter, he lives in Point Pedro. A key development project was a new port in his home district of Hambantota, built with aid from China. [14] While Rajapaksa was Prime Minister, he was also in charge of the Ministry of Highways, Ports & Shipping. Nevertheless, Rajapaksa announced his intention in 2006 to eradicate the separatist group, which had operated as both a rebel army and a de facto government in parts of Sri Lanka for more than 20 years. Throughout much of his childhood, his father, D.A. [164], Rajapaksa was being investigated by the Presidential Commission of Inquiry to Investigate and Inquire into Serious Acts of Fraud, Corruption and Abuse of Power, State Resources and Privileges (PRECIFAC) over alleged financial losses incurred by the state-run Independent Television Network (ITN) due to his campaign's failure to pay for advertisements broadcast during Rajapaksa's 2015 presidential election campaign and also over the appointment of the ITN Chairman in September 2014. The reversal of fortunes for the island nation's most powerful politician for decades has been giddying. Rajapaksa appointed another brother, Basil Rajapaksa, as minister of Economic Development. The Rajapaksas were represented in the country's legislatures continuously from 1936 till 1977. [193], Rajapaksa was born Percy Mahendra Rajapaksa,[15] in Weeraketiya, in the rural southern district of Hambantota to an established political family. Sri Lankan PM Mahinda Rajapaksa Resigns Amid Massive Clashes, Curfew Now that the Prime Minister has resigned, President Rajapaksa is expected to invite all the political parties in. Mahinda and Gotabaya Rajapaksa wave to supporters at a party convention in 2019. The Fake News Fraud: Funds Collected in Europe Through Falsehood that Tiger Leader Prabhakaran, wife Madhivadhany and Daughter Duvaraka are alive and Require Cash Urgently. The Sri Lankan Parliament passed two no-confidence motions brought against Rajapaksa on 14 and 16 November 2018. In late 2009, when he was four years into his six-year term and hoping to capitalize on his popularity following victory over the Tamil Tigers, Rajapaksa called for a presidential election in early 2010. [61] In the 2010 election, Rajapaksa was accused of manipulating election results using computers. The law cannot interfere. . Rajapaksa, 76, under intense pressure from within his own Sri Lanka . He served as the President of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015; the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 2004 to 2005, 2018, and 2019 to 2022;[2] the Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2004 and 2018 to 2019, and the Minister of Finance from 2005 to 2015 and 2019 to 2021. Environmental activists have accused the hotel of damaging the biodiversity by the construction of the hotel and have accused the Rajapaksa family of using the military in the construction of the hotel [51] Rohitha accepted that he owned the hotel and denied any wrongdoing during its construction. In 2010 Mahinda Rajapaksa was re-elected President contesting against a grand opposition coalition that included UNP, TNA, JVP. Retired general Sarath Fonseka, who had commanded the Sri Lankan army in the final battle against the Tigers, emerged as his main opposition. Chamal Rajapaksa, 79, was speaker of parliament when Mahinda was president and is also a former minister of shipping and aviation. Mahinda Rajapaksa's resignation is not a major event but could be the triggering point of many major events in future and probably indicates a much larger conspiracy. He was elected Speaker of the 14th Parliament of Sri Lanka. The move came just a day after the Supreme Court ruled that a referendum was not required to make the change. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. He is a member of the Sri Lankan Parliament for the National List and former Minister of Finance (2021-2022). In 1970, at age 24, Rajapaksa became Sri Lankas youngest-ever member of Parliament when he was elected to the seat that his father had vacated just five years earlier. Mahinda Rajapaksa is a Sri Lankan politician who served as the country's 6th President. Saudi journalists are forbidden by law to criticise the royal family or religious authorities and writers and bloggers are routinely arrested. [98][99] The manifesto pledged to introduce a new constitution within one year of being elected, but not to abolish the executive presidency it would be amended and the "weakness" in the parliamentary system eliminated. Chandrika Kumaratunga. [118], The Sirisena government launched a probe into the alleged coup by Rajapaksa. The loyalists were then armed with iron bars and assaulted unarmed protesters near Temple Trees and destroyed MynaGoGama. Photograph: Eranga Jayawardena/AP "Basil was the true power," said Udaya Gammanpila, who was a cabinet minister . Meanwhile, Rajapaksa and his supporters in Parliament defected from the ruling party and joined the Sri Lanka Podujana Peremuna (SLPP) party, founded by his brother Basil, and Mahinda formally became leader of the opposition. The country has been rocked by civil unrest . The Rajapaksa brothers are the children of Don Alwin Rajapaksa, a Sri Lankan politician and freedom fighter and a founding member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. [38] Sirisena's government sought help from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in locating this hidden wealth to expose the alleged corruption of the previous regime. Sri Lanka is obviously not this bad. [91], However, the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU) party withdrew from the UPFA government on 18 November 2014, citing Rajapaksa's refusal to reform the executive presidency and enact reforms to promote accountability. Advertisement. Rajapaksa, was a prominent lawmaker in the 1950s, it was Mahinda Rajapaksa who cemented the family as a dynasty that would rule Sri Lanka for much of the past 20 years. This makes the rankings somewhat suspect. The move comes amid concerns over China's growing influence in Sri Lanka and follows allegations that he abducted and killed teenagers after extorting money from wealthy families. [180] In 2008, Reporters Without Borders ranked Sri Lanka 165th among 173 countries in its annual Worldwide Press Freedom Index. Furthermore, the government stated that the deals would be suspended until the investigations were completed. [64], In a move that was widely seen as solidifying his control over the Supreme Court, Rajapaksa removed chief justice Shirani Bandaranayake from office in January 2013, allowing Rajapaksa to appoint an ally and legal adviser, former Attorney General Mohan Peiris, as Chief Justice. His oldest brother, Chamal Rajapaksa, was appointed the Speaker of the Parliament of Sri Lanka from 2010 to 2015. [190] State administrators in Tamil-speaking regions blocked the Tamil version of the anthem and in some cases used security forces to disrupt events. On 19 May 2009, President Rajapaksa delivered a victory address to the Parliament and declared that Sri Lanka was liberated from terrorism. After the end of Sri Lanka's civil war in 2009 . [5] [12] This streak ended after the UNP landslide at the 1977 parliamentary election. In the January election Rajapaksa easily defeated Fonseka, winning 58 percent of the vote, though the general protested the results. 0% Wiki/Biography Physical Appearance Family Parents & Siblings Wife & Children Religion [174] Noyahr was abducted and severely assaulted before being released in May 2008, after which he fled to Australia with his family, fearing for his life. [147], On 18 December 2018, the Speaker of Parliament, Karu Jayasuriya, announced that Mahinda Rajapaksa had been appointed as Leader of the Opposition, with the UPFA joining the opposition benches in Parliament. Their support was instrumental in the defeat of the Tamil Tigers, but the concentration of one family in the countrys most powerful posts elicited charges of nepotism from the presidents detractors. This was confirmed by the ministry of defence on 11 May 2022. [30][31][32][33] The Sri Lankan government declared total victory on 18 May 2009. On 25 October 1990, he said, "If the government is going to deny human rights, we should go not only to Geneva, but to any place in the world, or hell if necessary, and act against the government. [44], In April 2011, the Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon published a report by an UN-appointed panel of experts, which concluded that as many as 40,000 people were killed in the final weeks of the war between the Tamil Tigers and the government forces. Mahinda Rajapaksa expected a coronation. [185], At the same time, he took no action against Sinhala Buddhist extremists,[186] and his brother, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, was accused of supporting the extremist Bodu Bala Sena but later distanced himself from the organization, accusing it of being a "Western conspiracy". [167] Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) announced that they had filed corruption charges against the Rajapaksa brothers at the Bribery and Corruption Commission and demanded that 11 individuals and an institution be investigated for massive corruption. In the mid-fifties, the Rajapaksa family moved to Colombo and Mahinda Rajapaksa was admitted to Nalanda College, Colombo. Despite questions arising from Rajapaksas possible misuse of state funds for his campaign, independent observers held that no voting fraud had taken place. Most voters in these areas were forcibly restrained from voting by the militant group and, according to observers, they would have favoured the opposition candidate Ranil Wickremesinghe. Rajapaksas older brother, current Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, was president at the time. [210], Mattala Rajapaksa International Airport, Magampura Mahinda Rajapaksa Port, Nelum Pokuna Mahinda Rajapaksa Theatre, and Mahinda Rajapaksa International Stadium were all high-profile lavish infrastructure projects initiated by Rajapaksa during his administration and named for him. The Rajapaksas initially maintained an image of security and stability in 2020 as the global coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 pandemic took hold, especially as Sri Lanka reported much lower rates of infection and death from COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, than other South Asian countries. Rajapaksas second term oversaw sustained economic growth, and he continued to enjoy the strong support of the large Sinhalese majority in the country. [45], Wealth of the Rajapaksa family has been a subject of speculation with many members believed to have amassed a large amount of hidden wealth some of which have been revealed in international investigations and claims of wealth reaching over billions of dollars have been made. In the courtyard was a banner of similar size showing golden rice fields and Rajapaksa's smiling face at its centre. [14] They were later joined by Nirupama Rajapaksa, Basil Rajapaksa and Namal Rajapaksa. Among the charges are money laundering said to have taken $5.31 billion (Rs. Basil Rajapaksa, brother of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, was on Thursday sworn in as Sri Lanka's Minister of Finance, becoming the fourth . [34] The Rajapaksa family received numerous state resource abuse complaints from organisations and election monitors, including involvement in fraud, misuse of powers, and murder. Shameendra Rajapaksa, another nephew, is the director of SriLankan Airlines. On 9 August 2020, Rajapaksa was sworn in as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka for the fourth time at a Buddhist temple on Colombo's outskirts. Foreign Ministry Secretary Admiral Jayanath Colambage said he had not seen the complaint, and given its sensitive nature was unable to comment without ascertaining the view of the political leadership. [123] A spokesman for Rajapaksa has denied the allegations as baseless. Mahinda Rajapaksa, Rajapaksa also spelled Rajapakse, (born November 18, 1945, Weeraketiya, Sri Lanka), Sri Lankan politician who served as president of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015, during which time he oversaw the end of the countrys civil war (19832009), and later served as prime minister (201922). The following month Fonseka was arrested on charges of corruption and of engaging in political activity while on active military duty. [194] Most notable is his brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the current president of Sri Lanka and a former secretary for the Ministry of Defence. Mahinda Rajapaksa has betrayed the people. During his leadership, Sri Lanka scored extremely low in the Transparency International Corruption Index. This changed in 2005 when Mahinda Rajapaksa was elected president. Don David Rajapaksa, Vidane Arachchi (colonial post) + Dona Gimara Moonesinghe, 3. [46] Dead female Tamil fighters appeared to have been raped or sexually assaulted, abused, and murdered. [50][51], Sri Lanka also rose into the "high" category of the Human Development Index during this time. 238,000,000,000) worth of assets in foreign countries. Sri Lanka's economy really began to unravel a long time agowhen Gotabaya's brother Mahinda Rajapaksa was president between 2005 and 2015. Some of his cousins were given ambassadorial positions: Jaliya Wickramasuriya was appointed as Sri Lanka's ambassador to the United States, and Udayanga Weeratunga was appointed as the ambassador to Russia. [44] Later in July 2022, President Gotabaya fled the country and stepped down. [59] The audit confirmed that Sri Lanka had additional liabilities of 1.3 trillion rupees (8.9 billion US dollars). Rajapaksa's policies on ethnic relations were mixed. [14], During the insurrection, Rajapaksa frequently tried to encourage third-party intervention. President Rajapaksa has not been seen in public since tens of thousands attempted to storm his private residence in Colombo on March 31. The daughter of the slain journalist filed a complaint Friday, Jan. 8, 2021, with the United Nations Human Rights Committee over alleged government involvement in her fathers death 12 years ago. Following his brother D. M. Rajapaksa's death in May 1945, his father, D. A. Rajapaksa, was elected to the State Council of Ceylon. Mahinda Rajapaksa, the eldest of the Rajapaksa brothers, who have held a number of top government roles, served first as prime minister and then as a two-term president. At the time Sri Lankan forces were fighting the final months of the decades-long civil war with ethnic Tamil rebels. [158] The following day a gazette was released confirming Mahinda Rajapaksa's resignation from the post as prime minister. Carrying the vote of the Sinhalese majority, Gotabaya won the presidential election. He thereafter started his legal practice in criminal law in the Unofficial Bar in Tangalle, which he did until 1994. Commodore E. P. Wickremasinghe + Violet Wickramasinghe (died 2008)[64]. A total of 17 journalists and media workers were killed during Rajapaksa's presidency.[183][184]. The position of Prime Minister is largely that of a senior member of the cabinet who acts as a deputy to the President. A daughter of a slain Sri Lankan journalist filed a complaint on January 8 with the United Nations Human Rights Committee over alleged government involvement in her father's death 12 years ago. [198] The Rajapaksas have three sons: Namal, Yoshitha, and Rohitha. Addressing the SLPP's Kotte Asana Bala Mandala meeting, the Minister said that it is essential to fulfilling the hopes of the people who voted for Pohottuwa in the last . At the age of six, he was sent to his father's school Richmond College in Galle. [151], Mahinda Rajapaksa family was targeted alongside the entire Rajapaksa family during the 2022 Sri Lankan protests as their mismanagement and corruption was blamed for the destruction of the Sri Lankan economy, creating an economic crisis that caused Sri Lanka to default on its foreign debt for the first time in its history since independence. On 9 May 2022, Mahinda Rajapaksa organised his supporters at his official residence who were brought by buses and led by SLPP MPs. A sum of around $3.7 million was distributed in checks with ten days to go before polls opened, including $678,000 to print campaign t-shirts and other promotional material, and $297,000 to buy supporters' gifts, including women's saris. Nine people were killed and more than 200 injured. A subaccount controlled by China Harbor, called "HPDP Phase 2", shorthand for Hambantota Port Development Project, was the source of most of the payments. They were able to secure 239 local government bodies out of 340. On the day of his killing, Wickrematunge was followed by men on motorbikes, and when he stopped at a busy intersection they smashed his car window and punched a hole in his head with a sharp instrument. Fonseka was subsequently sentenced to two years in jail for various offences by a court martial. [35][36], On 23 January 2015, the Seychelles government announced that would assist the Sri Lankan government in search of funds that were transferred by the Rajapaksa regime into Port Victoria offshore bank accounts. The president's older brother, Mahinda Rajapaksa, is prime minister. [137][138], Mahinda Rajapaksa's proxy, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), won a landslide victory in the 2018 local authority elections. A Transparency International-led coalition revealed Rs. However, in 2017 he claimed that "there needs to be a standard. Both . Mahinda Rajapaksa became the new prime minister. [56] However, these claims have been disputed, and after his terms in office ended, the successor government revealed that GDP growth was inflated by using the year 2002 as the base year. [141][142], On the evening of 26 October 2018, President Maithripala Sirisena appointed Rajapaksa as Prime Minister after the United People's Freedom Alliance withdrew from the unity government and informed Ranil Wickremesinghe that he was being removed from office. [32][33], Following the 2015 presidential election defeat, the Rajapaksa family were accused of misusing public resources during the campaign, including use of the Sri Lankan Air Force in the campaign that cost $17,273.28 (Rs. He is also known to be the elder brother of Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled Sri Lanka during the Sri Lankan crisis in 2022. Namal Rajapaksa, the eldest son of former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, tied the knot with Limini Weerasinghe, the daughter of businessman Tilak Weerasinghe. On 3 May 2022, a motion of no confidence aimed at Rajapaksa and his cabinet was declared by opposition leaders. [5][128], Rajapaksa returned to Parliament after his tenure as president, the only former president to do so. ", "Infographics: Rajapaksa Family And Nepotism", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rajapaksa_family&oldid=1147953331, Articles with dead external links from April 2023, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles containing Sinhala-language text, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Janaka Wakkumbura, Member of Parliament for Kalawana, Ratnapura District, This page was last edited on 3 April 2023, at 06:24. Appointments have included his brother, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, who was given the post of Defence Secretary without holding any elections for the post; he controlled the armed forces, the police, and the Coast Guard, and was in charge of immigration and emigration. In 2019 the mother received a call from the coroners office. In addition, relations with Western countries were strained over Sri Lankas refusal to allow independent investigations of the militarys treatment of Tamils at the end of the civil war in 2009. However, his administration became increasingly associated with strong-arm tactics and other repressive measures against political opponents and civil rights advocates. [16][17][18] Subsequently, Chamal was elected as the Speaker of Parliament unanimously and Basil was appointed as the Minister of Economic Development. Later that year, Rajapaksa unsuccessfully sought to become Prime Minister in the 2015 parliamentary election; that year, the United People's Freedom Alliance was defeated but was elected as the Member of Parliament for the Kurunegala District. Nationwide protests broke out in March and continued in the weeks ahead. (Reuters Photo/File) Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is in hiding, having fled from his own people. D. A. Rajapaksa, went on to serve as the member of parliament from Beliatta from 1947 to 1965, and served as Cabinet Minister of Agriculture and Land in Wijeyananda Dahanayake's government. Rajapaksa's brother-in-law, Nishantha Wickramasinghe, is the chairman of SriLankan Airlines. While his daughter and Mahinda and Gotabaya's niece Nirupama Rajapakse served as deputy minister in water supply and drainage from 2010 to 2015. [212][213][214], Minister of Defence and Urban Development, Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development, Minister of Labour and Vocational Training, Alleged war crimes during the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War, Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium, Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall, alleged war crimes during the final stages of the Sri Lankan Civil War, South Asian Institute of Technology and Medicine, "Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa resigns", "Proud leader who defended the motherland", https://www.google.com/s/www.thehindu.com/news/international/Rajapaksarsquos-second-term-starts-in-November-2010-Supreme-Court/article16811954.ece/amp/, "Sri Lanka election: Mahinda Rajapaksa concedes he is unlikely to be PM", "Sri Lanka's PM resigns in effort to ease constitutional crisis", "Sri Lanka opposition declares no confidence in government", "More violence reported around the country: Over 100 injured", "Reject The UN War Crimes Report: Mahinda Rajapaksa Tells Govt", "Mahinda Rajapaksa: Sri Lanka's saviour or war criminal? [130] The government sought help from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in locating this hidden wealth to expose the alleged corruption of the previous regime. [39], After Mahinda Rajapaksa's defeat at the presidential election in 2015, the new government of President Maithripala Sirisena reopened the investigation over allegations that former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa ordered the assassination. "While . His cousin Udayanga Weeratunga is Sri Lanka's ambassador to Russia. [6], Rajapaksa became the leader of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna in 2019, splitting the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. Shyamlal Rajapaksa, the son of George Rajapaksa, was a member of the Southern Provincial Council from 1994 to 2004. [65][66][67] In November 2014, the Supreme Court dismissed legal objections regarding President Rajapaksa's eligibility to seek a third term. By 2010, following the end of the war, the RSF ranking was 158th. Yet progress stalled. [131], The Sri Lanka Air Force announced that Mahinda Rajapaksa and his family had used military aircraft for the Presidential election campaign, using $17,300 (Rs. In an exceedingly rare move, the former heads of state have been barred from entering the western country. He is famously known in the country as the son of Mahinda Rajapaksa, who is serving the position of Prime Minister of Sri Lanka at the moment. Most voters in these areas were forcibly restrained from voting, and it is said that they would have favoured Wickremesinghe of the UNP party. "[19] In 1994, Rajapaksa appeared in the Sinhalese film Nomiyena Minisun. Litigation. [60], Rajapaksa was accused of election fraud in relation to both of his previous presidential election runs. Hundreds of thousands of . [7] The popularity of the Rajapaksa family collapsed after their actions caused the economic crisis that started in 2019, resulting in Sri Lanka defaulting on its debt for the first time in its post-independence history within just 30 months of coming to power. [185], With the widening of democracy in our country, the bonds between the Sinhala and Tamil people of Sri Lanka will grow stronger and remain a major force for its future development. Angry protesters attacked the family's ancestral home in the Hambantota area, and Mahinda has been forced to take refuge on a heavily fortified naval base. The complaint requests that the Human Rights Committee ensure that Sri Lanka conducts an independent investigation, prosecutes those responsible, and apologizes to and compensates the Wickrematunge family. Don Alwin Rajapaksa was elected MP for Beliatta and Lakshman Rajapaksa (Don Mathew's son) was elected MP for Hambantota. Protesters have been constantly protesting, blaming Mahinda Rajapaksa's family for Sri Lanka's economic collapse. [211] Thus, critics have accused Rajapaksa of being narcissistic. [10] One of its members, Don David Rajapaksa, held the feudal post of Vidanarachchi in Ihala Valikada Korale. He became a member of the Ceylon Mercantile Union and was elected its branch secretary in 1967. [14][21], When the United National Party (UNP) defeated the People's Alliance in the 2001 elections, Rajapaksa lost his position in the government.
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