Fonseka and Fonseka

By Nalin de Silva

(February 17, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Many pundits and Mahanayake Theros are disturbedover the arrest of Sarath Fonseka by the military police. They have appealed to the President to release Fonseka. Various reasons are given by various people usually woven around democracy but Mahanayake Theros have said that the utterances made by the former army commander during the Presidential election campaign should be ignored. Although the Mahanayake Theros do not resort to democracy as such almost all the others including the intellectuals try to project the view that it is not good for democracy to arrest the Presidential candidate of the Opposition.

I do not know what the Mahanayake Theros mean by the utterances of Sarath Fonseka during the election campaign. He certainly used words such as kalavedda, paharaya but it is very unlikely that he was arrested by the military police for uttering such words. Of course, he said something on sudukodi (White Flags) and killings implicating Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Major General Shavindra de Silva in what can be called a war crime. It meant that Sarath Fonseka was ready to give evidence against the Defence Secretary and the Major General before a so-called international war crime tribunal. If there was such an inquiry and Sarath Fonseka had given evidence implicating the above it would have been a foregone conclusion that they would have been given the supreme punishment.

It is no secret that these war tribunals are maintained by the west for the west. They are in general operated based on the principle naduth hamuduruvange, baduth hamuduruvange and if the west wants they could punish anybody on the flimsiest evidence. The west were waiting to bloat the evidence of Fonseka against Gotabhaya Rajapaksa and Major General Shavindra de Silva and punish them. In December 2009 we wrote in The Island under the heading Court Martial Field Marshal the following.

"The united nations have now written to the Government of Sri Lanka based on a statement by the retired General (whose promotion as a Field Marshall was recommended by some) Sarath F according to which the Defence Secretary had ordered the commander of the 58th Battalion to shoot three terrorists including Vamadevan and Nadesan as they came out with white flags to surrender. We do not know whether they came out with white flags or not nor whether they were sent by Prabhakaran when he realised that he had no chance of survival. Whatever it is, SF claims that he heard the story from a journalist. In any event, it is not known why the United Nations has decided to act on a news item that was denied by SF subsequently. Also it is not known why they did not act with such concern when Rohana Wijeweera and Gamanayake were killed while in custody.

Whatever the reasons may be for this discrimination by the UN, the retired General has now joined the anti national forces and is acting against the interests of the country. If the incident had really taken place then SF as the former commander of the army has divulged information that betrays the armed forces and the state. If the incident had not taken place he could be charged for cooking up stories to discredit the armed forces and the state. In either case if it is possible to court martial a retired officer then it is duty of the relevant authorities to court martial the ‘Field Marshall’.

Thus, there were some people who had advocated in December 2009 that Sarath Fonseka should be brought before a military court. We wrote so in Irida Divaina and made speeches to that effect in December and January. We realised the gravity of the statements by Sarath Fonseka and that they were not mere rhetoric at election meetings. Sudu kodi or white flags episode was made public through The Sunday Leader in December 2009 and the Mahanayake Theros should have warned the General that he should refrain from uttering such statements.

Here is a man who sought to further his interests by betraying not only the Defence secretary and the commander of the 58th division but the President as well. When we wanted Sarath Fonseka to be brought before a military court it was not for contesting the Presidential elections. We had predicted on a number of times that he would lose but that he was only an agent of the western colonialists and representing the non national forces. It is a futile exercise on the part of the westerners and the other non national forces including the UNP and the JVP to attempt to portray that the government had taken Sarath Fonseka into custody simply because he was the opposition candidate at the Presidential elections. The western media is trying to give that impression to the world and may be able to dupe the gullible in the west and other countries, who depend on western media for information, but not the majority of right thinking SriLankans. The western information is never unbiased and not without interpretation.

It is clear that the military police has taken Sarath Fonseka into custody for violating the law. This betrayal has happened while he was the Army Commander and Chief of Defence Staff and a deal had been worked out most probably after he became the CDS. It is now clear that CDS comes within the regular armed forces and the Army Act is applicable to Sarath Fonseka even as CDS. According to now famous clause 57(1) of the Army Act charges have to be framed within 6 months of the commission of the crime and however much Opposition protests against it Sarath Fonseka had to be arrested after the conclusion of the Presidential elections and before the nomination day for the Parliamentary elections. Otherwise the West together with their henchmen and henchwomen would have made a big fuss about arresting the Presidential candidate or a candidate at the Parliamentary elections.

In spite of a futile attempt to separate issues, it is not possible to separate Fonseka, the Opposition candidate, from Fonseka the retired army commander and the retired CDS. The westerners who claim that the State has been separated from religion cannot tell us a way to separate Fonseka the Opposition candidate from Fonseka the ex-army commander. Thus, there is no way of arresting Fonseka the ex army commander and ex CDS without arresting the Opposition candidate and leaving him at home. If the west tells the government of Sri Lanka a way of separating the Fonsekas then the army could have left the Opposition candidate for the non national forces to play with. Unfortunately, there is no such way and the western forces take advantage of portraying their "crown witness" against the President, the Defence Secretary and the others who decided to betray them only to save their neck (the Westerners were earlier thinking of framing charges against Sarath Fonseka as well). There was a case against Sarath Fonseka, the ex-Army commander and the Defence secretary framed in the courts in California and it would be interesting to find out what happened to this particular case. Sarath Fonseka, the Green Card holder could have been sent to the electric chair if the Americans proceeded with the case,

If Fonseka is refusing to corporate with the military police, then I suppose they could proceed with the case without his evidence. What would have happened if a lesser mortal refused to give evidence? Sarath Fonseka cannot play Fonseka and Fonseka all the time. One Fonseka should not be allowed to hide behind the other Fonseka. If Fonseka is the brave soldier he claims to be, he should stop playing Fonseka and Fonseka.

There are some people who ask the question as to how the "best army commander" who led the army against the LTTE is arrested while Karuna who killed so many innocents is in the government. The answer is simple. Karuna has given up the terrorist activities and has entered the parliamentary politics whereas Fonseka the army commander who led the army against the LTTE under of course the political leadership of the President has given up his nationalism and turned out to be Fonseka the betrayer.