Sri Lanka: Gotabhaya’s larger than life role
09-July-2012
Col. R. Hariharan

Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s brother, is perhaps the most controversial personality in Sri Lanka. He is interviewer’s delight because of his forthright, no-holds barred comments are sure to be a hit. At the same time, he is media man’s nightmare because Gotabhaya does not allow critical comments go unchallenged and makes no bones about it (pun not intended).

None can deny Sri Lanka benefited from the veteran’s return from the U.S. in 2005. He took upon the most thankless job at that time - manning the defence ministry when war looked imminent.  His hands on operational experience enabled him to provide seamless connectivity between national leadership and military that had eluded his predecessors in earlier episodes of Eelam war.

Undoubtedly his sibling relationship with the President helped him in his task. Gotabhaya had the ear of the President and probably also persuaded his brother to act upon his suggestions. And this enabled him during the war to cruise through the maze of bureaucracy and ward off political interference in dealing with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) that had been the bane of Sri Lanka.  

Thus he was able to help President Rajapaksa achieve his goal of ending Prabhakaran’s infamous two and a half decade-long reign of insurgency and terrorism. In this task, he had the indispensible support of General Sarath Fonseka as army commander. Fonseka’s masterly execution of operations turned the war victorious, although some of his methods were questionable. Despite Gotabhaya’s estrangement with the ambitious Fonseka after the war, it was Gotabhaya who recommended his fellow Gajaba Regiment-mate Fonseka to head the army. And it was he who recommended the extension of the General’s tenure by one more year. Apparently blood proved thicker than military camaraderie when Fonseka chose to contest for presidency; Gotabhaya joined in the government’s orchestrated campaign to malign the General contribution to the military victory.      Full Story>>>