Despite his travails, Gota's voice was firm, according to people who observed him at a distance.
That was the last presidential ride of 73-year-old former Sri Lankan army lieutenant colonel-turned-politician Gotabaya Rajapaksa, once a hero to his people as the steadfast defence secretary who fashioned a huge battlefield victory that quelled a quarter-century of ethnic insurgency with brutal force.
Addressed to the Speaker of Parliament, the now-historic piece of paper that ended Sri Lanka’s eighth presidency was put in a sealed cover and swiftly taken back to Changi Airport to be delivered to Colombo on a late evening Singapore Airlines flight. This should not be a major issue and it would instantly allow the nation to buy oil currently waiting in tankers in Sri Lankan waters and other essential supplies such as medicines.
While Rajapaksa’s political demise is owing to his mishandling of the Sri Lankan economy over the past two years, his rise was entirely on account of his stint as defence secretary – a position he accepted after his older brother Mahinda became president in 2005. Having got his way, Rajapaksa worked closely with Gen Fonseka to fashion a brutal battlefield victory over the Tigers that would come in just over three years, in mid-2009.Sri Lanka's Parliament Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardana speaks during a press conference in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Friday, July 15, 2022.
Jayewardene had stripped Bandaranaike of her civic rights in 1990 on the grounds of abuse of power during her 1970-1977 term. In 2015, Western and Indian intelligence agencies, worried about the regime’s increasing strategic proximity to China, cooperated to fashion a party coup against them.
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