“Gen Sarath Fonseka of course is a military man unlike Mahinda. It is expected from a civilian leader like Mahinda to give the lead in reshaping of the military or putting it into effective use in the future.”
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By Purang Appu
(December 21, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Past four year rule of the President Mahendra Percy Rajapaksa has been very acrimonious on many fronts. The period is marred by heavy human rights violations even in the non-conflict areas in the South and these have been systematic and reflected a trend of well orchestrated mission of the government to undermine the very basics of democracy and was seen as centralisation of governance within the circle within the family and friends of the President.
The President may privately say such situation was needed to confront the ruthless terror group and that he did eliminate in a ruthless manner. The manner in which the ruthless LTTE was wiped out clearly proved overwhelming state terror against a section of the vulnerable people achieve its goal and the government is strenuously extending a regime of impunity for the violators of human rights and seems to have not moved an iota even to mitigate the compelling circumstances and the international outcry to investigate the crimes.
The election campaign is on, and the President has not released his revised Chinthanaya mission statement to highlight his work programme for the second term yet. There are number of issues burdening Sri Lanka and these has to be dealt in a mature sense. All what we are hearing is glorification of war victories in the election campaign. Very fundamental issues of good governance, economic progress, dealing with the post war situations, political conflict resolution process, human rights issues etc., remain sidelined in the campaign so far.
Whilst both the favourite candidates prop up the huge military machinery that has been built to defeat the LTTE, they will not say anything about down sizing it to the need of the country. Speaking about down sizing is politically suicidal in the South for any candidates.
Gen Sarath Fonseka of course is a military man unlike Mahinda. It is expected from a civilian leader like Mahinda to give the lead in reshaping of the military or putting it into effective use in the future.
The President’s attitude towards the western powers has been very hostile and the consequences of this are starting slowly filter through. Before the consequences of the international pressure bite Sri Lanka, President Mahinda Rajapakse called the Presidential election to outsmart the world and bury his past as a bygone era. With Sarath Fonseka entering into the contest, the President is finding it hard to say anything controversial fearing they can be point scoring for the opposition.
It is important that Mahinda focuses his revised Chinthanaya manifesto to lure the international opinion. One option he has is to sell his victory mechanisms to the West. This is his real asset and must be marketed convincingly. The President has claimed that he is the only leader who had outsmarted a terrorist group. This achievement cannot go in vain. The President must further consolidate this process by striking a deal with the West to engage the Sri Lanka forces in Afghanistan.
This engagement of experienced and well armed forces will receive support even from the friendly Pakistan. The President must tell the forces and the Sri Lankan people that he will support the international effort and send a large contingent of the country’s forces to wipe out the Taleban’s and Al-Khaida in Afghanistan. The President must offer unhindered and uncontested access to Afghanistan and to use the methodology used to defeat the LTTE unhindered.
With their historical victory over the LTTE, the Sri Lankan forces can go after Bin-laden and do what they did to the LTTE leader Pirabakaran and his family members in Vanni. Any deal with the West must ensure there must not be any war crimes charges brought against Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka must be allowed to do what it is capable of doing. Rain the Chinese rockets, shooting anyone appearing with white flags and permission to shoot anyone in the capable hands of the army must not be questioned. It must be a pre-requisite that media and the NGO’s are kept off the scene and their engagement must come under the management of Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka will of course demand that Channel 4, The Times and The Guardian must me kept out as they had caused so much headaches for the real work done to eliminate terrorism in Sri Lanka.
Just imagine if Sri Lanka can negotiate to handle this extra-ordinary operation for a deal of 10% of the cost of Afghan mission of the West? It will not only help Sri Lanka’s balance of payments difficulties and will make it the buddy of the West. The President can offer a higher stake for displaying the dead body of Bin-Laden and there should be an unmitigated sum for this, which surely should overwhelm the coffers of the Central Bank and can be used to boost the economy.
There is nothing wrong in taking a cut of 10% or 15% of the deal with the West by Basil or Gota. Their rate can be incorporated as part of the deal on the Afghan mission.
-Sri Lanka Guardian
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President’s election campaign must focus on strengthening the relationship with the West
By Sri Lanka Guardian • December 21, 2009 • • Comments : 2
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Brother,
Very nice writting. I could not undersand at the begining, but understod at the end. Binladan is not hiding in a play groung like Vanni. Sending srilankan army to Afcanistan is like sending to Gas chamber. In vanni really Indian and chinese army killed all tamils. If you are allowed to kill every one using chemical bomb, even a kid can win the war,you do not need an experianced army. I still wander how rajapakse is sleeping after killing so many innocent tamils, His house will be sarounded by dead sprits. In general Budisam is a good relegion but not srilankan Budisam, mahavansa encourage killing.
What are you talking about? When the war commenced Mr. Fonseka was nursing his wounds in Singapore. Then when Prbhakaran fell he was with his family touring the Great Wall of China. The Military leader you are talking about was not on the ground leading the troops. If not for our fearless ground commanders we would not have won the war.
SF uttered in number of programs that he has not political ambitions. What is he doing now? How come the land of 10 perches gifted to him was not enough and was greedy to push to government to increase it to 25 perches at 3.5 million rupees a perch. How did he buy Commanders’ bullet proof vehicle worth 44 million for 2 million rupees. How did he accept his own Army Commanders position just 10 days before his retirement by ejecting the then army commander Sanath Kottegoda 2 years before his term of office? Where is the principle he is crying about. Even after he left Army Commanders position, how come he could not vacate the official residence or the HQ guard to reflect the new Army Commander? Records of his young officer days show a different Fonseka. He always has been a greedy, ruthless and ungrateful person going by the officers who were parallel to him in the Army career.
Your assumption that the savings of the war has not reached the people is unfair. We still have to maintain the inflated army for good reason. Then programs and financing takes time to reach the ground level. It is evident how fast the development is taking shape in the East. It has taken over 2 years to make this work. North also will get that blessing in few months time. However, no part of Sri Lanka should be overlooked in this development effort. I wish the writer be more reasonable and civil in attacking only the government. The people across the isle have been worse.
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