Enough talking!, Fonseka party deeds must be brought to books

Anuruddha Mohottiaarachchi

No election in Sri Lanka history confused the voters to the extent that the forthcoming Presidential Election 2010 has done. For the first time, they have been a given a choice between well experienced statesman and an ambitious military commander to be elected as their leader.

Hence, it has become a choice between a predictable future and an unpredictable one that may settle anywhere between a perfect democracy and the worst form of a military junta. It is a decision if made errantly, will cause generations to suffer. To make the situation worse, the amount of allegations brought against each party are so serious that they cannot be discarded as mere mud bombs thrown against each other to gain political advantage.

On the opposition side, the allegations are only made with a singular aim of slinging mud at the family of the incumbent President. Almost all of these allegations have been answered by the government and none of them have been established with facts by the Opposition. Basically, the allegations represent jealousy, hatred and vengeance; perceived by some as the only recognizable aspect of Fonseka political vision.

The allegations brought against joint UNF-TNA-JVP (Fonseka Party) Presidential candidate Sarath Fonseka are yet to receive any acceptable answer from his side. In fact, there have been no answers at all other than a series of denials.

There has been a great hue and cry over Norway pumping billions of foreign funds to Fonseka campaign. Also, it is said that Fonseka had made millions out of shady arms deals during his tenure as the army chief. The Government political stalwarts making these allegations are also seemed to be very confident over their claims.

The paper advertisements and emails about the Hicorp scandal are so convincing that it leaves only one suspicion in the peoples minds: why Fonseka is not prosecuted so far for what he had done? Fonseka so claimed close friend, Mr. Upul Ilangamge makes allegations that no flawless individual can ever tolerate. The most recent allegation is about an attempt to bribe a Government Parliamentarian to make a cross over to the Fonseka party.

The questions that automatically come to a discerning mind are: Where has the so claimed Clean Government Servant have found money to pay 30 million rupees to a Parliamentarian ready to make a cross over? What kind of relationship that the former army chief has with the foreign powers? According to M. Musammil, he had been offered a safe living in a Western country for the rest of his life.

The discerning mind always searches for the answers for these questions. Particularly, when it is about to make a crucial decision that would decide the future of a nation.

Obviously, it does not want to risk the country’s future with a weak but mean-spirited individual who is ready to betray anything for his own advantage. Yet, the mind craving for the truth is getting increasingly anxious as the moment of truth is just few days away. The Government inaction will only confuse them and can even mislead them to make a decision that they never dreamed to make.

In that case, credit should go to the National Freedom Front (NFF) for taking the initiative. The party has caught the Opposition trying to bribe one of their MPs red handed, shown the evidence for their claims to the public and now ready to go before the Bribery Commission. Now, the people want to see the Government authorities paid by their money to clarify how the Opposition candidate who claims himself to be so uncorrupt found this much of money. Was it from Hicorp deals or from a foreign country trying to destabilize our nation?

Time is fast running out and we are waiting.