The boomerang of treachery

What Fonseka has done is to throw a bombshell into the election campaign of Mahinda Rajapaksa, which appears to have done a boomerang on his own campaign. He now has to curse himself for what he has done to the white image of the swan he chose as his symbol. His glaring words of treachery are what should really attract the bolts of lightning that his fellow in the politics of desperation and vengeance, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has been calling on all people who support the candidacy of President Rajapaksa for a second term

Philip Alston has struck again. It is not surprising after the effort he made to discredit the findings of experts, both local and abroad, who showed that the Channel 4 video clip of the alleged summary killings of Tamil civilians by Sri Lankan troops was a fake.

It would be easy to dismiss the letter by Philip Alston, the UN Rapporteur on Extra-judicial, Summary and Arbitrary Killings as lacking in any foundation, because his source, General (Rtd) Sarath Fonseka, the former Army Commander, has himself said he was misquoted on the matter, and has now taken full responsibility for all actions of the Sri Lanka Army when under his command.

But it is necessary to probe deeper into this matter, and not let it off as a joke, as Fonseka has described the criticism levelled against him for an act of possible treachery, when addressing the public in Kandy.

Although Fonseka may like to have this buried as a joke, what he has said and done is much more serious, when one sees the progression of events that led to Philip Alston’s letter calling for the Government’s views on the matter of the alleged shooting down of leading LTTE cadres who are said to have come carrying white flags of truce, at the final stages of the military operations to free the Tamil people and the entire country from the clutches of terror of the LTTE.

The trail goes back to the reports by some Western media, who were carrying on a concerted campaign against Sri Lanka, allegedly for not being allowed to be witnesses to the final stages of the war to end terror in Sri Lanka, but were in fact angered by their failure to promote the efforts of some Western powers to offer a lifeline to the leadership of the LTTE, at the time of its final crisis.

This was when the story of this white flag waving surrendees first emerged, but went down for lack of credibility.

Homeland security

The next stop on the trail was when Fonseka went to the United States on a personal visit, when he was the Chief of Defence Staff. The story that first came out to Sri Lanka was that he was to be questioned about the acts of the Defence Minister. The good solider that he was, Fonseka had at the time said the Defence Minister was the President who is also Head of State. It is surprising that US officials, even those in Homeland Security, did not know this fact. It was then revealed that the US officials had really wanted to question him about the Defence Secretary. This led to the Government of Sri Lanka lodging a strong and formal protest against such questioning by an officer of the Armed Forces against his superiors, on what can be considered matters of privilege. That matter ended almost as a damp squib.

But, the next stage was Fonseka bleating out his fancy story to The Sunday Leader in an extensive interview. It does not need much imagination to realize that what he was doing from the start was to target both the President as the Commander in Chief, and the Defence Secretary, about both of whom allegedly the US wanted to make inquiries. So Fonseka came home, shed his uniform, took to politics (which he said he had no intentions of getting into not so long ago) and then began singing for his supper.

Whether the cost of his treacherous song came from the US where there is a strong pro-LTTE group of Sri Lankan Tamil expatriates, who have infiltrated the State Department very well, or came directly from the hidden funds of the LTTE, especially after he expressed his willingness to seek funds even from Prabhakaran’s parents, will be a secret known only to himself. But, he has sung the song of treachery of Sri Lanka, and all those thousands of troops who were loyal to the country and the Armed Forces, and this is not something that can be treated as a joke.

It is important to know who these people are that Philip Alston, quoting Fonseka is so concerned about.

The three of them “Nadeshan, Pulidevan and Ramesh”, were leading cadres of the LTTE. They were people who were at the head of the organization, both in propaganda and fighting, which carried so many acts of terror in the country, killing hundreds of civilians, destroying so many families, and also holding their own Tamil people captive and as hostages to terror, and using their children to carry arms for a very long time.

These are not the types about whom there will be many tears shed anywhere else, in a civilized world, except in the cozy and calculating offices of people such as Philip Alston and Navanethan Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, to whom Alston wants report on the circumstance of death of this trio of terror. These were members of an organization that engaged in terror, and was so regarded and banned in so many countries including the US and the European Union. And now, it is the story of a white flag of truce that is suddenly being used to draw sympathy to them, and more so to justify the so-called cause of the Tamil people they claimed to be fighting for.

Bombshell

What Fonseka has done is to throw a bombshell into the election campaign of Mahinda Rajapaksa, which appears to have done a boomerang on his own campaign. He now has to curse himself for what he has done to the white image of the swan he chose as his symbol. His glaring words of treachery are what should really attract the bolts of lightning that his fellow in the politics of desperation and vengeance, Ranil Wickremesinghe, has been calling on all people who support the candidacy of President Rajapaksa for a second term.

Ranil Wickremesinghe has now moved away from the politics of unredeemable promises because of his record of defeats, to the politics of the Big Curse. It is the Hena Gahana Deshapalanaya, the politics of the lightning bolt of destruction, wished on all who support the betel leaf and not the swan. As usual he has not realized that to curse anyone, even one’s worst enemy with being struck down by lightning is not part of the civilized culture of the Sri Lankan people whether Sinhala, Tamil, Moor or any other.

Even those who may think so, do not give word to such thoughts. But rolling down the trail of political defeat and desperation, Ranil Wickremesinghe, who is known for many an earlier bloomer in language, is not loathe to using such words in the hope of becoming Executive Prime Minister of the country, through a Presidential Election, he is too scared to contest.

Whatever Ranil may say, that is always opposed to what Fonseka seems to want, there is more than a thunderclap of contradiction in the political thinking of the two parties that are propping up Fonseka on the back of his shaky swan. There is one that believes in unlimited support to the private sector, or unbridled capitalism, propping up Fonseka on one side, while the other prop sees red at such policies.

It believes in expanding the State sector in the economy, while the rival prop, (there is no other description possible), believes in the diminishing of the role of the State, the cutting down of public expenditure and also the public service. How Fonseka will balance these rival forces is something the country has to watch with care. This will be an interesting observation to those organizations of civil society who believe that questionnaires sent to candidates can bring out more than their manifestos will tell about what they will do if elected.

But there is a great necessity for caution too, about these props of Fonseka, the green and the red. Both of them have the least regard or respect for democracy. Both are well known for the suppression of dissent within their ranks, and also outside. The UNPs attack on trade unions in the 1980s and on the Tamils in from 1957 to 1983; and the JVPs attacks on all of its rivals from the right to the left seen in the late 80s are too recent for many to forget. They are well matched in brutality against the people, and the violent obstructions to elected representative government, as the country saw in 1989 with the UNP using its own brutality of State oppression to counter the open savagery of the JVP that led to a carnage, only bettered by the LTTE in later years, with “Nadeshan, Pulidevan and Ramesh” the truce flag wavers of Fonseka and Alston - gladly taking orders from Prabhakaran, Soosai and Pottu Amman.”

These are the forces that are riding the swan with Fonseka today. There cannot be much chance for democracy to raise its head if they happen to get anywhere near power. But what’s even worse are the contradictions between Fonseka and Ranil. Now it is time for those who believe in giving questionnaires at Presidential elections to ask both Fonseka and Ranil how they expect to sort out their own differences as to what should happen after the Executive Presidency is abolished (if it were ever to happen after this election).

Is Fonseka agreeable to be the mere head of a council to oversee the eradication of corruption, under Ranil as the Executive Prime Minister? Or, is Ranil agreeable to serving as the head of any number of insignificant committees if Fonseka remains true to his style and continues to be the Executive President? A very big if, no doubt.

These are the issues before the people today. They will not go away by the lightning and thunder curses of Ranil or the treachery of Fonseka.