Gotabaya Rajapaksa held public office at a time when the terms of that office were themselves being contested.
The record lists Gotabaya Rajapaksa as President of Sri Lanka from 2019 to 2022.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa was born at Matara District in 1949. His recorded nationality is Sri Lanka. He was educated at Ananda College and Defence Services Staff College.
Twentieth-century politics was conducted under the shadow of two world wars, decolonisation and the Cold War, and broadcast to electorates that could watch it happen.
The offices held were President of Sri Lanka (2019–2022), Minister of Defence (2019–2022) and Minister of Technology (2020–2022).
His political affiliation is recorded as Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna.
His name is attached above all to arrests, suppression of dissent, and assaults on journalists and demonstrators. Power is judged twice: once by contemporaries who felt it, and again by historians who did not.
Formal honours included the Eastern Humanitarian Operations Medal, Northern Humanitarian Operations Medal, North and East Operations Medal and Vadamarachchi Operation Medal.
That the career was made in Sri Lanka is not incidental: the institutions available, the franchise, and the constraints of the moment all shaped what could be attempted.
Gotabaya Rajapaksa's career is not finished, and the historical verdict on it has not been reached.
Achievements
- President of Sri Lanka (2019–2022)
- Minister of Defence (2019–2022)
- Minister of Technology (2020–2022)
- defence minister
- Eastern Humanitarian Operations Medal
- Northern Humanitarian Operations Medal
- North and East Operations Medal
- Vadamarachchi Operation Medal
- Educated at Ananda College and Defence Services Staff College
