President completes two years in office

The seventh Executive President of Sri Lankan Gotabaya Rajapaksa celebrates the second anniversary of his inauguration, today.

President Rajapaksa was born on 20th June, 1949, to former Cabinet Minister D. A. Rajapaksa and Dandina Dissanayake Rajapaksa. He is the fifth sibling in a family of nine and is brother of fifth Executive President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa as well as Chamal Rajapaksa, former Speaker of the Parliament and Basil Rajapaksa, current Finance Minister.

He was educated at Ananda College, Colombo, and joined the Sri Lanka Army in 1971. During his military service, he earned a Master’s Degree in Defence Studies from the University of Madras and underwent advanced training in Pakistan, India and the US. Having commanded many anti-terrorist operations in the North and East of Sri Lanka, he was awarded the Rana Wickrama Padakkama and Rana Sura Padakkama Medals for Gallantry and Excellence in combat. He also received commendations from the President of Sri Lanka and the Commander of the Army for his bravery in action. After retiring from the Army, as a Lieutenant Colonel in 1991, Mr. Rajapaksa studied Information Technology at the University of Colombo where he obtained a Post Graduate Diploma in Information Technology. He later emigrated to the US with his family where he worked as an IT professional at the Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, California.

Mr. Rajapaksa returned to Sri Lanka in 2005 with the election of his brother, Mahinda as the fifth Executive President of Sri Lanka and was appointed as Secretary to the Ministry of Defence on 25 November 2005. He was instrumental in ending the three decades long terrorist conflict in Sri Lanka through an expertly conceived and skillfully coordinated military strategy. Following the end of the conflict, he swiftly restored normalcy whilst taking steps to further consolidate national security. In post-war Sri Lanka, Mr. Rajapaksa fast-tracked the de-mining of the North and Eastern Provinces affected by the war and displaced civilians were resettled in their homes, within a short span of time. He also initiated a globally recognized de-radicalization and rehabilitation programme, whereby approximately 13,500 former LTTE combatants were re-integrated to society successfully.

In 2009, Mr. Rajapaksa received Doctor of Letters (Honoris Causa) from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka

On 25 April 2010, Mr. Rajapaksa’s responsibilities were enlarged to include the country’s urban development programme. As Secretary to the Ministry of Defense and Urban Development, he systematically and speedily implemented a range of initiatives that transformed Sri Lanka’s cities and improved the lives of the people by fostering a more sustainable and attractive urban environment.

Following a change of government, Rajapaksa relinquished office on 9 January 2015. In February 2016, he formed “Viyathmaga” (Professionals for a Better Future) a non-profit organisation comprising professionals, academics and entrepreneurs who wished to effectively contribute towards the development of Sri Lanka. Through Viyathmaga, Mr. Rajapaksa created a platform to engage with professionals in developing key policies to be implemented by a future government.

In August 2019, Mr. Rajapaksa was declared as the presidential candidate by the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna under the leadership of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and campaigned on a platform of a policy-driven government, based on sustainable development and an inclusive Sri Lanka. On November, 2019, he was elected by a majority of 52.2% as the seventh Executive President of Sri Lanka.

Mr. Rajapaksa is married to Ms. Ioma Udeni Rajapaksa, who holds a Diploma in Business Management from NIBM, Sri Lanka and worked as a Medical Coder in the USA. They have one son, Manoj, who holds a double major in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Duke University, North Carolina, US and a Master’s in Systems Engineering from University of Southern California and works at Jet Propulsion Laboratories of NASA. Manoj is married to Sevwandie, a graduate in Cell and Molecular Biology from Winona State University, Minnesota and is working as Safety Manager at University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

(Courtesy President’s Office)