Tisaranee and a Fonsekan Future? -Part Two

By Nalin Swaris

(February 23, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Before dealing with speculative interpretations and insinuations about Citizen Sarath Fonseka’s arrest and incarceration, this upfront. I have expressed serious reservation about the suitability of Fonseka for the office of Executive President (The Island 13/01/09 and 20/01/09). This must not in anyway be misconstrued as uncritical support for President Mahinda Rajapkse and his government. His Presidency has been marked by a rampant culture of impunity; the subversion of the rule of law, possibility for legal redress, abuse of the police and resort to extra judicial punishment of critics. In his first inaugural speech President Mahinda Rajapkse said, “I am not the master but the trustee of the country.” But before during and after the Presidential election the State media were, and are, used as a propaganda tool by his government. Opposition opinion is blacked out even though State media are public property, not the private property of the ruling party Citizens have the right to all shades of information and opinion. No wonder people, even supporters of the government, are turning to private electronic media for fair alternate views and balanced coverage of news.

However, I will not stoop to justify or rationalize these as some well known human rights advocates have rationalised the atrocities committed by JVP terrorists in the 1987- 89 period and by the LTTE fascist terrorists on the grounds that their acts of violence were understandable volcanic eruptions due to the generations of repression of ‘low caste’ Sinhalese and Tamil ‘low castes’ by the ‘high caste’ Goyigama and Vellalahs. Tell that to the relatives of the victims. This is the enjoyment of vicarious satisfaction for unresolved complexes due to one’s own real or perceived experiences of caste discrimination. In my tribute to human rights heroine Rajini Rajaratnam-Thiarangama, I wrote that by her life and death she taught us all that “Terrorism by the State or by anti-State agencies is a Crime Against Humanity. We cannot be ambiguous or ambivalent about this.” (quoted by Rajan Hoole, The Arrogance of Power 2001:xii)


Tisaranee and a Rajapakse

Tisaranee Gunasekere (TG) in ‘Our Rajapakse Future’ (15/02/2010, Sri Lanka Guardian SLG0 begins her diatribe with an insufficiently proven premise in order to draw a parallel conclusion with regard to Mahinda Rajapakse,thereby putting both in the same category: “Vellupillai Pirapaharan offered Tamils an implicit Mephistophelian bargain – [surrender?] their basic democratic and human rights in return for ‘liberation’ from Sinhala dominance via a separate state. A majority of Tamils accepted, however unhappily, because of the Tigers’ proven capacity to take on the Sinhala state. The journey that was premised on that bargain ended on the shores of the Nandikadal lagoon and in the Northern internment camps.” That journey also involved frog marching about 350,000 hapless Tamils across the Vanni using them as human shields.

TG has to say it was an “implicit” bargain because there was no consultation of the “majority” of the Tamils with regard to any bargain. The LTTE achieved its right to claim to be the sole representatives of the Tamil Speaking People by ruthless liquidation all other Tamil militant groups. The sufferance of fascist LTTE rule by the Tamil people cannot be characterized as “implicit” acquiescence.

TG uses the insufficiently proved assumption of a “Mephistophelean bargain” to argue the same with regard to the Sinhalese people. She has to say “Sinhalese’ instead of her favourite bash object the Sinhala Buddhists because the predominantly Roman Catholic areas also went to Rajapakse. “By voting for Mahinda Rajapakse in overwhelming numbers, a majority of the Sinhalese too renewed their consent to a similar deal, trading democratic and human rights for a Sinhala supremacist state, a state which keeps the minorities in their place and tells the Western world to mind its own business. Rajapakse? Or a state headed by Fonseka?

It is one thing to argue that the effect of such a vote might have on the consolidation of a ‘Sinhala supremacist state’ (an ideological assumption) and another to assert that this was a deal, implicit or explicit, as suggested by “renewed consent”. Sadly, TG, daughter of an outstanding Leftist and secretary of Dr.N.M. Perera, denigrates the Sinhalese people for supporting the President’s unflinching stand against Western imperialist attempts to determine the outcome of this nation’s fight against terrorism. For this alone every patriotic Lankan should be grateful to him. The correct political position Left or Right is that when external forces threaten a nation’s sovereignty one closes ranks within. Ultra Left wing (mostly Trotskyite) pseudo radicalism invariably degenerates into Right wing opportunism. The struggle for democracy is an unfinished internal task. Seeking redemption from a ‘strong man’ is the refuge of the desperate and politically impotent.

The majority of the Sinhalese people were not gullibly underwriting a Faustian pact. They are grateful they no longer have to live in daily fear of sudden terrorist attacks that might kill their loved ones, especially their children. To call this Sinhala supremacist triumphalism, is racially jaundiced Machiavelianism.

To suggest that Mahinda Rajapkse wants to establish a Sinhala supremacist State is resorting to alarmist rhetoric. True, Rajapakse flaunts the externals of Lankan Buddhist religiosity at every turn. But given his carefully cultivated Sinhala Buddhist credentials, he more than most, is best positioned to propose a just solution to the grievances of the Tamil people which Buddhists would readily accept, just as only the ‘Commie hater’ Nixon could credibly establish relations with China and only a Christian fundamentalist Reagan could begin talks on nuclear non proliferation with ‘atheistic’ Russia. Though the Rajapakse’s were raised in a remote rural area in the deep South, they have not been prone to parochial religious and caste complexes. Mahinda married a Catholic woman, who while participating in Buddhist religious ceremonies, continues to practise her religion. Mahinda invokes the blessings of Hindu gods. His first cousin Nirupama is married to a Tamil. A friend from the South who knows the family told me that there are several cross ethno-caste marriages in the Rajapakse family circle. Mahinda Rajapkse himself once averred that Alfred Duraiappah, the Mayor of Jaffna assasinated by the LTTE was distantly connected to his extended family. The Rajapakse’s may be power hungry, but they are neither ethno-caste puritans nor Sinhala Supremacists. Judging by what he told the Canaduan National Review (23/09/08), Sarath Fonseka is.

TG: “A Rajapakse constitution is therefore likely to deprive the minorities of even the devolution they have currently, thereby completing the post-2005 paradigmatic shift to the Sinhala supremacist status quo ante (pre-1987)”. Sinhala supremacism again! This is an ideological transfer of a historically loaded term, “White Supremacism”, onto the Sinhalese people. It is an ideologically motivated imputation; theoretically spurious and empirically false.

Motives for the Fonseka Arrest

Sarath Fonseka’s arrest has provoked indignation and wild allegations. In Oart 1 of this article (SLG), I dealt with Tisaranee Gunasekere’ fierce denunciation of the charges leveled against Fonseka as “fantastic” and her explanation as to why he was arrested under the Military and not under Civil law. I pointed out that the reasons given were already in the public domain: Ranil Wickremesinghe, Mangala Samarawickreme and Tilvin Silva blathered that Fonseka while still a serving General had been in touch with them. Now, former UNPers, Johnstone Fernando Gamini Abeyratne and UNP stalwart Lakshman Seneviratne have testified at a pre-trial inquiry, that Fonseka had contacted them about a possible political role he could play in the future, while he was a serving General, holding the post of Chief of Defence Staff. So much for TG’s “fantastic” allegations! Whether it is beyond reasonable doubt that at least some of these contacts were made with the conspiratorial intent of ousting the President, is for a court to decide, Military or Civil. Until then presumption of innocence is just attitude. Critics too must consider whether the allegations could constitute a prima facie case, even if the subjective motive may be revenge.

The Asian Human Rights (whose Executive Director is a Hong Kong based expatriate Lankan.He generally authors statements on Sri Lanka) has stated in this journal that “The target in the present arrest and detention is not Sarath Fonseka himself. The general population is the intended target. The message in this arrest and detention and that message is that Sarath Fonseka is merely a symbol for carrying that message forcefully”.

When I asked a university lecturer friend, (not a Mahinda supporter) whether he had read the statement and what he thought of it, he broke into a guffaw. “This is the problem with ideologically driven human rights advocates fulminating from distant and safe ivory towers. It is not borne out by ground realities.” he said. The news of the lightning arrest perplexed the general population. They remained confused as details of the reasons for the arrest percolated to them. What prevails is an atmosphere of calm, but not a calm before a storm. Only Fonseka supporters reacted with indignation and protests. These protests organized mostly by the JVP are running out of steam. In the scramble for seats in the next Parliament, the Fonseka Front is disintegrating.

TG’s puffy anti Rajapakse rhetoric of “fantastic allegations” and “conspiracy theories” purveyed “as hard evidence” must have been deflated by the news that the CID unearthed a trove of local and foreign currency amounting to more than Rs 75 million which included US$ 500,000, “hard evidence” in the form of crisp new notes with sequential numbers deposited in the vaults (four in all) of a private bank. The nice lady who rented the vaults is the mother of Danuna Tilekeratne, Fonseka’s son-in-law. She told the CID that she had rented the vaults on Sarath Fonseka’s instructions and that the monies were brought to her by Fonseka’s daughter Apsara in a large black bag, from Fonseka’s election office. Let me assure anxious absentee crusaders that ordinary people did not feel “targeted’ by this. But, they must certainly have asked themselves why the ‘God We Trust’ does not shed his ‘green back’ grace on them?

The Revenge Game

Tisaranee Gunasekere decries the arrest of Sarath Fonseka as an act of spiteful vindictiveness on the part of President Rajapakse: “This action, so manifestly anti-democratic, so unmistakeably reeking of phobia, hatred and vengeance, so clearly aimed at teaching a humiliating lesson to a former acolyte who dared to commit the supreme crime of lese majéste”. Fonseka will not like being called an ”acolyte”.

Gunasekere and other revenge theoreticians forget that Sarath Fonseka is the superlative example of spiteful vindictiveness. His resignation letter and especially the Confidential Annexure simmers with resentment about what the President did to him. (i) He was asked to prematurely relinquish his post as Army Chief on the 15 of July 2005, (understandably, after he his bravado at Dharmashoka Vidyalaya Ambalangoda on the 10th of July, which boast would figure prominently in the US State Department’s Report to Congress). (2) Rejecting his proposal to appoint his nominee to succeed him (3) Limiting his power as CDS to coordinating the services and “not that of overall command.”(4) In response to his demand that the size of the army should be increased (reportedly to 400.000), the President had said , “that no further recruitment would be necessary” and that “a strong public opinion is in the making stating that the Country is in possession of a too powerful army.” The president cannot be blamed if he feared that the man was contemplating some outrage.

The simmering resentment boiled over when General Fonseka turned Presidential Candidate and was cocky with certainty of victory. He began to issue dire threats to his enemies. The Rajapakse’s should be ready with ‘mat- pieces’ to be sent to Welikada or Bogambara prisons. In case the Rajapakse’s attempt to flee the country he would shut down Katunayeke Airport. He reportedly pledged that he would have Gotabaya Rajapakse executed by a firing squad on Galle Face Green! The supreme irony is that he threatened to have those field commanders who appeared on national TV stripped of heir decorations and uniforms and court martialled. The crude language he used is what one associates with a Vermin Silva than with one might expect of a future Head of State.

The Ultimate Ratting

The day before his arrest Sarath Fonseka told the BBC’s Tamil Service that he was ready to appear in any war crimes tribunal and ‘tell everything he knows’ about what happened during the war of extermination against the LTTE. Fonseka cannot testify about war crimes without indicting himself. After Neuremberg, no plea by army officers begging to be exonerated on the grounds that they were merely carrying out the of their political rulers – the notorious “Befehl is Befehl”, ‘Orders are Orders’ - will be tolerated by any war crimes tribunal. Fonseka would not have made this threat if he had not had some assurance that he would be given immunity from prosecution if he turned star prosecution witness and ratted against his own, in exchange for immunity and other inducements such as full citizenship, relocation and permanent residency. But, the little ‘white house’ in the prairie has come tumbling down.

Sarath Fonseka was no Great Messiah come to restore the Kingdom of Democracy. His threats made from public platforms rather suggest a spiteful man who would have thrown the niceties of the rule of law and due process into a dust bin to take wreak vengeance on his ‘enemies’.

Never in the history of any army anywhere in the world has an Army Chief been ready to rat on his own Army and his Commander-in-Chief in such a revolting manner. There are certain things that an Officer who is also a Gentleman will never do, certainly not the Indian war hero, Field Marshall Sam Manekshaw of revered memory.

Fonseka was no Messiah come to restore The Kingdom of Democracy. If elected he would thrown the rule of law and due process in to a dust bin and wreaked vengeance on his enemies. We have his own words for that.

Fonseka a General once resplendent in glory, has covered himself with opprobrium in the eyes of those who honour basic decencies and loyalties in personal and professional life. Let those who are driven by ideology or by rankling caste resentment, “crawl through back gates and gutters” to pay homage. I won’t.

Related Link :
Part One
Our Rajapakse Future