‘Napoleons’ and ‘Hitlers’ are lurking in the dark

By Dr Vickramabahu Karunaratne

(November 01, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) General Sarath Fonseka has become the most important political topic today. Not that he has made any political intervention; on the contrary he says that he has no intention to come into politics. But some of his statements which he made during the conduct of war were definitely political and directly in line with the unitarist Sinhala chauvinist view point. Also he appears to have committed himself to the view that every thing and any thing should be done to stop the implementation of 13th +amendment and beyond. But he did not support any party or any particular party leader; and continues to deny that he will come into politics in the future.

However history is full of examples of military men who were recognized to be powerful soldiers by the establishment of the day and later, maybe reluctantly, were drawn into politics. Julius Caesar, Cromwell and Napoleon were a few of them. The openings that were available in history are no longer available today..

Sinhala Napoleon

So, there is no room for a Sinhala Napoleon. However, a few months ago Victor Ivan started a heated argument with me and Viyangoda to convince us that Mahinda would be a Sinhala Napoleon. But today, Mahinda is busy turning every stone around, in order to get rid of sanctions made by the global capital. In spite of the noise he made against the western powers for raising human rights issues, he is, at the same time doing every thing possible to satisfy his global masters. It is clear that the Indian rulers are very much on his side. Sonia, the Maha Rani of the Indian imperial setup, mercifully sent a Dravidian delegation from their epicentre of Tamil nationalism, to wash Mahinda’s dirty linen. . He did what they wanted and now he is doing everything to bring Indian, American and Chinese investments into the war cleared Lanka. One international money lender has classified Lanka as the best investment sector in the world. It is a government which has taken over a large part of land and other resources into its hand and is now prepared to dish out to foreign investors. It is a country where large parts of workers are held in open prison camps while trade unions are controlled by chauvinist and government stooges. In fact the Emergency and the PTA has made TU legislation none existent. But their tragedy is that the Sinhala chauvinist camp is now divided. Mahinda deliberately pushed General Sarath out of his power centre. He was to be appointed as sports secretary; in the meantime Mahinda’s pal Wimal was speaking loudly about a conspiracy. Yes of course, it is a conspiracy to isolate General Sarath.

Crumbs of devolution

Even the Maha Rani of Delhi will be happy if she can give some crumbs of devolution to the Tamil leaders. On the other hand, if General Sarath Fonseka were to contest the presidential elections with the support of ardent Sinhala chauvinists, the capitalist regime will go into crisis. In the meantime we notice that the soldiers are getting restless.

They can see that the future is bleak. Already steps are being taken to convert them into khaki clad lowly paid workers, without labour rights.

-Sri Lanka Guardian