Will Fonseka be returned in one piece?

(February 26, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Under an executive presidency devoid of democracy, victimizing formidable political opponents is not an unusual phenomenon in Sri Lanka.JR Jayewardene after assuming his presidency ensured that Mrs. Sirima Bandaranaike a formidable political rival would not be a contender for his position as long his tenure lasted by disenfranchising her and stripping her of her civic rights and succeeded in putting her party the SLFP in complete in disarray. There was some semblance of democracy here for Jayawardene with all his cunning was more civilized and wished to be seen as more urbane. Mrs. Bandaranaike was not subjected to the same degree of humiliation and suffering that Fonseka would be subjected to in the near future too. Fears for his life are being are being held and these are valid.

The manner in which Fonseka was arrested and the charges leveled are indicative of the Rajapaksa government having designed this even before the election results were announced. Rajapaksa’s ego is too enormous to accept Fonseka’s temerity to contest for Presidency which he thought was in his pocket consequent to the defeat of the LTTE. Contesting the presidential election against the incumbent is not an attempt to overthrow his government as made out to be. For want of more credible charges, Fonseka is also to be charged with plotting a military coup and conspiring to assassinate President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Not even Fonseka’s bitterest critic who had closely observed him during the past few months could be convinced of this. Because the Tamil people in the North and the east voted overwhelmingly for him, wherever voting was made possible, he is made out to be an LTTE supporter confirming the notion that all Tamils are terrorists and should be treated so.

We are not here discussing the conduct of the election and its outcome suffice it to say that democratically challenging the victory of an autocrat at such an election and in such situations is futile. Once declared elected there is very little chance of the process being reviewed and or reversed especially by a justice system obtaining in Sri Lanka. The world know that Mugabe’s election in Zimbabwe was fraudulent, the election of the president in Iran was a farce and the election of Hamid Karzai in Afghanistan was fraught with corrupt practices, low voter turnout and instances of intimidation but was defended as usual by Ban ki Moon of the UN as being above board despite the damning report by his own emissary who was to later resign. So they should not waste their time.

Although the anguish and the anxiety suffered by members of the Fonseka family are no where near the collective suffering, desolation, and poignancy of the hundreds of thousands of innocent Tamil victims of the so called war against the terrorists, and their relatives, we express our sympathies to the Fonseka family as victims of the kind of Sri Lankan injustice. The manner in which Fonseka was arrested and the treatment meted out to him speak for the discipline within the Sri Lankan military which Fonseka himself lauded as one of best in the world. The person who was handpicked to arrest Fonseka was an officer who had been punished by him for being responsible for the deaths of nearly 127 soldiers through his negligence.

Rajapakse apparently in order to avoid direct responsibility took the opportunity to collect armaments in Russia to promote the Russian armament industry, the most lucrative of all international trade, on a credit of US $300 million to be paid up by future generations of Sri Lankans and collecting an honorary degree from a university “bringing glory to Sri Lanka”, while not going anywhere near the number collected so far by President Mugabe. He has a long way to go to but we are confident that in due course with his unrelenting nature, he will excel Mugabe’s record to bring greater glory to Sri Lanka. If for Iran’s Ahmadinejad, it is atoms for peace, for Rajapaksa it is arms for peace. In Rajapaksa’s, absence it is quite evident that the whole operation of Fonseka’s arrest was conducted under the direction of his brother and secretary for defence who assumed the role of being the Sri Lankan State with indeed the approval of Mahinda Rajapaksa. Gotabhaya Rajapaksa’s actions show clearly a glaring conflict of interest in that being the principal accused as a war criminal he acted as judge of the law and the fact, as the inquirer having also assumed the role of the jury in declaring that his accuser Fonseka is guilty of treason.

It must be observed that it is not the gibberish about conspiracies, coups and assassinations that Rajapaksa brothers and their accomplices are concerned about. They are most concerned about the allegations made by Fonseka accusing Gotabhaya a US citizen , his brothers including the president and the former secretary of foreign affairs an Australian citizen of serious war crimes and the flouting of the related provisions of the international law. Fonseka has therefore to be silenced forever. This is the bottom line. So far whenever accusations of crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide were leveled against Sri Lankan State in the aftermath of the war waged with racist undertones the Sri Lankan representatives with the connivance of Ban ki Moon, India, China Russia, and other countries not aware of the real situation have been able to cover them up. Crimes of such gigantic proportions cannot be concealed so easily much longer. Further, much to her embarrassment, Navi Pillai the UN commissioner for human rights, a Tamil notwithstanding , who wants to get on with her work accused of over reacting being a Tamil, has often been inhibited in her action again by India China and Russia. She is obstructed at every turn. It is becoming increasingly clear that it is in the interests of India to keep Fonseka silenced.

Given that the destinies of the Rajapaksa brothers in their role in a so called democratic State are at stake, there are four alternatives to them: transform Sri Lanka into a military dictatorship, notwithstanding the general election results whether favourable or not go for a constitutional change increasing the powers of the executive president, assassinate Fonseka as feared by the opposition parties or release him.

The President has squandered the opportunities of any bi-partisan agreements to settle issues of national importance such as the Tamil national question. This is the tragedy of the Sri Lankan democracy.

Very much like the Tasmanian devil, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa can do things that others would find difficult to do. We would like to remind the readers once again of what Euripides the Greek dramatist wrote two thousand four hundred years ago:”Whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad”.

(The writer is Editor of the Eelam Nation)