Expanding imprint of Rajapaksa family in the new government of Lanka

The Rajapaksa family, pursuing a nationalist agenda, has tightened its grip on the island nation with appointments of relatives on key cabinet berths

Special Correspondent

New Delhi: By naming two more of his relatives in the newly-formed Sri Lankan government, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa tightened his family’s grip on the island nation’s politics. The growing dynastic imprint on Colombo’s administration was strengthened by one of the Rajapaksa nephews, Shasheendra, who joined the newly elected government as a state agriculture minister though he will not be in the cabinet.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, 71, became President in November 2019, and named Mahinda, a 74-year-old former President, as the Prime Minister.

Pursuing a nationalist agenda, their party Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) has won a two-thirds majority in the Parliament, which allows them to change the constitution and tighten their hold on power. The Rajapaksa brothers seek to scrap a 2015 constitutional amendment which transferred some executive powers from the President to the Prime Minister, along with independent institutions to run public services as well as the judiciary.

The 26 cabinet members include four members of the Rajapaksa family with the President retaining the Defence portfolio, while Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, bagging the key departments such as – Finance, Urban Development, and Buddhist Affairs. The eldest Rajapaksa – Chamal was given the reigns of the Irrigation ministry. He was also made the state minister for defense, a non-cabinet position responsible for internal security and disaster management. Meanwhile, Mahinda’s son Namal Rajapaksa now controls the Youth and Sports ministry.

President Rajapaksa also appointed his lawyer Ali Sabry as Sri Lanka’s new Justice Minister. Sabry – one of the most trusted accomplices of the Rajapaksa family, had appeared for Gotabaya when he faced court cases related to corruption as a top defense bureaucrat during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s time as President.

The SLPP party – led by the Rajapaksas – won 145 of the 225 seats in the parliament. The party secured nearly 60 percent, or more than 6.85 million, of the total valid votes, well ahead of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB) party, which came in second with mere 54 seats.

The Mahinda-led cabinet was to hold its first meeting on August 13, to discuss proposals for constitutional changes and the new budget for the island nation.

Symbolic Political Props

The Rajapaksa family chose a very specific location for the swearing-in ceremony of their new cabinet. The family had selected the ‘Temple of the Tooth’ – the holiest Buddhist shrine in the island, in the presence of saffron-robed monks and handpicked guests in Kandy.

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Sources close to the family said that the venue holds a very special significance to the family. “The temple was opted as the swearing-in ceremony location to appeal and influence their majority Sinhala-Buddhist constituency,” the source said while remembering the venue – Pagoda constructed by a Sinhala King who wiped a rival from the minority Tamil community – chosen by the President in November 2019.

“Similarly, even Mahinda took oath as the Prime Minister at the Kelaniya temple which Buddhists in Sri Lanka believe to have been visited by Lord Buddha himself. This all is part of the power show, a covert political message,” he cited.

Former President Sirisena out of Cabinet

Apart from the nepotistic appointments, the Rajapaksas also courted controversy on keeping former President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena out of the newly-formed cabinet. Sirisena was not awarded a ministerial post in the new government. While he served as the President from 2015 to 2019, Sirisena also heads of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), the party that Mahinda Rajapaksa broke away from to form the SLPP party.

“It is shocking to see that even after winning 1,11,137 votes in the Polonnaruwa district, which is a very high number, he has been strategically kept out of the decision-making table,” a senior SLPP member said while adding that he could be nominated for the post of the Parliament Speaker.