In a win for democracy, mass protests in Sri Lanka recently led to the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.
A strongman who won popularity for overseeing the end of the civil war in 2009 (while his older brother, Mahinda, was president), Gotabaya was elected in November 2019 and promised to safeguard national security and deliver prosperity. He failed miserably.
Despite allegations of corruption, war crimes, and attacks on journalists, the Rajapaksa government had a powerful mandate, which was reinforced nine months later when the brothers' party, Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (the Sri Lanka People's Front), won a two-thirds majority in Parliament. Yet during his short tenure, the Rajapaksas drove the country into bankruptcy, food insecurity and spiralling inflation.
