Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s political destiny has turned a full circle from being a popular Sri Lankan president to a symbol of hatred within a short span of just 30 months.
The man elected with a 60 percent popular majority from among the Sinhala Buddhist majority is in hiding. Having fled the Presidential Palace on the eve of the unceasing wave of the second popular uprising, the 73-year-old President remains incommunicado.
The ignominy he has been subject to was as big as the power he assumed for himself through the 20th Amendment after being elected in November 2019.
What holds for him and the Rajapaksa dynasty? They reigned supreme with as many as four from the Rajapaksa family in the top echelons of power while two nephews waiting in the wings in the lower rung of Parliament.
”Gotabaya Rajapaksa may have been the most powerful of the Rajapaksa brothers in terms of popular support and the constitutional capacity he wielded as the president, but he never had a firm grip on his party, the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP),” said Kusal Perera a political commentator and writer in Colombo.
The reason was Gotabaya, who had never been a politician, was piggybacking on his brother Mahinda’s charisma and political acumen, he said.
Perera dismissed rumors that Gotabaya Rajapaksa may still not leave the presidency despite his message to the parliamentary speaker that he would resign next Wednesday bowing to the demand of the uprising.
There is a school of thought that by opting to delay his resignation, he was bidding time so the uprising against his government may recede.
”His political position has been weakened substantially. Even his staff would not stand with him now. No chance for him to make a comeback to resume the presidency,” Perera said.