The dimensions of vishvasability

By Malinda Seneviratne

I am not upset that you lied to me;
I am upset that from now on
I can’t believe you - Friedrich Nietzsche

(January 11, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Sarath Fonseka’s campaign managers have come up with a unique lubricant: trust. They are getting him to say ‘Trust me, vote for me’. That statement is attended with a merry-Christmas-goddamn-you kind of pledge-list which, even after reading it and shaking it twice leaves you exclaiming ‘what the hell!’ and ‘how the hell!’ Trust. Nice word. Nice feeling. And it is doubtful that you can get more noncommittal than that in politics.

This ‘trust’ business needs to be unravelled a little, but let me first share a couple of emails I got after Fonseka realised his ‘wish-list manifesto’.

“It is difficult to read the pledges in Sarath Fonseka’s manifesto with a straight face. Almost all of them require the Executive Powers he is so keen to abolish within a month of his Presidency. Also, the cost which is astronomical is not considered, and yet he has also pledged to reduce the sources of revenue. Therefore the other alternative is to print money and a certainty for Mugabe type inflation. There is more, too numerous to mention. His manifesto should be named Unvishvasaneeya Venasak venturing into the colloquial.”

I expected more, I must admit, not from Sarath Fonseka or Mangala Samaraweera, but from Wijedasa Rajapaksa, a man we thought was honourable, above petty politics but sadly has now slipped and covered himself with the inevitable mud that clings to personage out of slinging and getting slung. He said ‘it is all based on trust’. No specifics. No details. Just promises. That’s good I suppose if it was a matter of electing the Chairman of a Maranaadhara Samithiya, but not a President. Take a bow, Wijedasa; a bow-out for a bow-wow in case you didn’t get it.

‘Trust in me’ is a nice line. Indeed in certain cases such a line might even work. On the other hand ‘trustworthiness’ is never obtained by statement, it is conferred on account of track-record, statements made, degree of stumble and mumble, company kept, track-records of associates, degree of civility, humility and know-how, and the readiness to lie, to fudge and vilify.

Fonseka has shown that he is a mumbling-stumbling politician in his statements about his son-in-law and arms deals, what he wants to do with the executive Presidency, his state-retract-state juggling with respect to the issue white-flag-surrender and suspicious and worrisome silence on policy issues, the details, the how and the why etc. He has demonstrated that for him ego and revenge matter more than nation and national interest.

He has shown that he can lie without any qualms. He has been charged with gross misconduct while serving as an Army Officer including insinuations of rape. He has shown that he will stand with any fool, traitor and thief in order to win and therefore that he is just another politician and not someone who is worthy of the tag ‘change-candidate’.

Just to remind the reader, here are thumbnail sketches of his ‘friends’. Rauff Hakeem has said that Fonseka has given the TNA the opportunity to take over the administration of their Motherland (no less!) and is described by a Muslim friend thus: he certainly does not speak for a single Muslim I know and is a self-aggrandizing opportunistic twat (ouch!).

R. Sambandan is the leader of the TNA, from inception a proxy for the LTTE and an unrepentant campaigner for division of the country.

Mangala Samaraweera is a political bungler who is also an ardent advocate of federalism and someone who did his utmost to undermine the efforts to rid the country of the terrorist menace. He is known for pilfering public funds to up his ‘quality of life’ in and out of office.

Ranil Wickremesinghe is a despot in the making, having long years of such experience at the help of the UNP and stands charged of rank disregard for ethics pertaining to transparency and accountability within the party.

I almost forgot that he was co-signatory to the Ceasefire Agreement with Prabhakaran and was complicit in the bloodletting and gross crimes against humanity perpetrated in the late eighties.

Sarath N. Silva is perhaps the most vindictive Chief Justice we’ve ever had and has a long track record of being selective and self-seeking in his determinations and the general dispensation of ‘justice’. He is moreover one of the key movers in preventing the implementation of the 17th Amendment.

Tilvin Silva and Anura Kumara Dissanayake are JVPers of the bheeshanaya type, populist, incompetent and ready to compromise principle and ideology for the pettiest of reasons.

Here’s another reader-comment: Dont you think it is rich that the two perpetrators of mass-murder in this country the UNP and the JVP are united on a platform bemoaning violence?

The thing is, General, it is no point pointing fingers at anyone else and saying ‘he lies too and so does he and he and he’. You are not positioning yourself as a lesser liar but an honest man, remember? One slip and you are out. You took a risk General when you claimed, you are, will not and could not slip. You did and thereby disqualified yourself and Wijedasa is not helping you by opting to throw wishy-washy eyewash on the voting public.

Friedrich Nietzsche once lamented thus: I am not upset that you lied to me; I am upset that from now on I can’t believe you. He could have been speaking about Sarath Fonseka. This is the issue about ‘trust’, Mr. Fonseka. You don’t deserve it. And given that you’ve hung your campaign on the issue of ‘trust’, you really don’t have a leg to stand on.