After the bankruptcy of the country and the occupation of the presidential palace by protesters, the Sri Lankan president finally emerged, but not in Sri Lanka but in the Maldives, which is also a tourist destination in the Indian Ocean.
According to a number of international media confirmed, at 3 a.m. local time on July 13, Sri Lankan President Gotabaya-Rajapaksa arrived in Malé, the capital of the Maldives, by military plane. Meanwhile, the president's younger brother, Bashir Rajapaksa, a former Sri Lankan finance minister, has also left for the United States. Their hasty departure heralded the end of decades of rajapaksa family rule in Sri Lanka.
According to senior Sri Lankan security officials, Rajapaksa entered the Maldives with his wife and two bodyguards in an Air Force AN32 transport plane. At first, the Maldivian air traffic control authorities rejected the plane's request to land. It wasn't until the Speaker of the Maldivian Parliament, former President Mohammed Nasheed, intervened that they were able to land. However, after landing, Rajapaksa and his party were escorted by the local police to a secret location. The newly emerging Sri Lankan president disappeared again.
After Sri Lanka's prime minister declared the country bankrupt on July 6, an already turbulent society was ignited. On July 9, a massive demonstration of 100,000 people erupted in Colombo, Sri Lanka, intruding into the presidential residence and burning the prime minister's private residence. The president and prime minister have since disappeared, and since then there have been reports that Rajapaksa has fled the country.
According to the news that came out later, the domestic situation was completely uncontrollable. Rajapaksa signed his resignation letter on July 11, but the payment date is July 13, and he is suspected of buying time for his escape.
According to previous reports, at first Rajapaksa tried to escape by taking a civilian flight, but he was afraid of being besieged by the people and did not dare to queue up with ordinary people to go through the formalities.
After news of Rajapaksa's attempted escape, Sri Lankan officials filed a motion with the Supreme Court to ban key politicians in the family, including former Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, from leaving Sri Lanka. However, it was still unsuccessful to prevent the escape of the members of the political family.
The Rajapaksa family has dominated Sri Lankan politics for many years. The family is a local political powerhouse in southern Sri Lanka, where he was elected president in 2005 by the current president's brother Mahinda Rajapaksa, who remained in power until losing to the opposition in 2015. In 2019, the family returned to politics, with his younger brother Gotabaya ascending to the presidency, former President Mahinda becoming prime minister, and several members of the family being appointed senior cabinet ministers.
During Gotabaya's administration, the country's economy eventually collapsed completely due to serious mistakes caused by a series of highly controversial policies such as adhering to "green agriculture" and tax cuts, coupled with a series of problems caused by the new crown epidemic and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Many Sri Lankans have also pointed the finger of the country's bankruptcy at the family's crony politics.
Although sri Lanka's president and his family have completely collapsed, Sri Lanka's crisis is far from over. The country had already delayed $51 billion in foreign debt in April and was in talks with the National Monetary Fund to request possible aid. A series of political and social upheavals that followed undoubtedly interrupted the process.
Next, Sri Lanka must elect a responsible government to save the country. It is reported that on the 11th local time, the Speaker of the Sri Lankan Parliament has announced that he will reconvene the parliament on July 15, nominate the next presidential candidate to the parliament on the 19th, and elect a new president on July 20.