A Land Fit For Heroes Or Villains?

by Gamini Weerakoon

(September 29, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Heroism is a relative concept. ‘No man is a hero to his valet not because the hero is no hero but because a valet is a valet,’ was the observation of the German philosopher Georg Hegel.

In Sri Lanka where the love for fellow human beings is not much evident, traditionally, one man’s hero has been another man’s villain.

Heroes galore

But suddenly last year, there was a surfeit of heroes. After the much celebrated victory over terrorism, we had a hundred thousand or more heroes in our land. Every serviceman in the armed services overnight became a war hero — a ‘Ranaviru’. They became the salt of Mother Lanka’s earth. Their commander the then General Sarath Fonseka was declared the ‘Greatest Army Commander’. We had massive posters and cut-outs of Gen. Fonseka all over the country. Radio, TV and newspapers had a great proportion devoted to Fonseka, the man who led the nation to victory in a near three decade old war.

But overnight Fonseka, we were told, was a villain — just at the time he threw his hat into the ring and declared he would be a presidential candidate.

Posters were ripped out of walls, cut outs came down, and radio, TV and the newspapers that had proclaimed him as a great hero declared him a traitor and villain.

We wonder whether anyone has attempted to write a comprehensive history in heroism in the world. If it is done, Sarath Fonseka would surely be in the front ranks of those who metamorphosed fastest from a hero into a villain.

This essay is not a panegyric on Fonseka and we add that we have had no contact with him at all. Our interests are purely academic.

Heroes sans the leader

Now that the one time hero has been stripped of his medals, buttons, rank, uniform and even his pension, doubts may arise about the status in the scale of heroism of the soldiers who fought under him.
Indeed the soldiers remain heroes in the eyes of the army. But what of the impact of their image on the public when their one time leader is no longer considered a hero? A good hypothetical example would be our cricket team that won the World Cup under Arjuna Ranatunga. If Arjuna Ranatunga is stripped and denied of his glories in the cricket field and declared a traitor and villain, what would that make of the champion team and individual players in the eyes of the public? It will certainly result in the diminution in the image of the team and players. Fortunately Ranatunga remains as a national figure with his head held high. Individual acts of heroism of commanders and captains on the battlefield, cricket field or any other field will remain indelible in the minds of the people and cannot be erased by anyone.

Where are the heroes?

When we look around for heroes of Lanka other than the thousands of war heroes and of course the select band of politicians, we can hardly find them. Persons that come to our mind are: Susanthika Jayasinghe, Muttiah Muralitharan and Sanath Jayasuriya. Susanthika had to run very hard for her medals, not so much on Olympic tracks but away from an ardent and passionate top notch in the Sports Ministry. Muttiah Muralitharan had Darrel Hair and the likes who tried to ‘no ball’ him and Sanath Jayasuriya who had it plain sailing having sailed into parliament as well is now going in for a ‘third term’ as his illustrious boss. Jayasuriya to keep his heroism going will have to keep the score board ticking as fast as the preferential (manape) votes of his party.

UN hero

What of other politician-heroes other than the anointed heroes of the ‘Raja-pak’ clan? There is comrade Wimal Weerawansa who performed an act of daring heroism by commencing a fast-to-death opposite the UNDP headquarters in Colombo recently. The world stood with bated breath as he said no hellung-pol mallung I will not call off the fast until that Ban Ki-Moon calls off that committee, he appointed to probe alleged war crimes of Sri Lankan security forces. Some of this critics said that he was fasting on glucose water but such allegations are often made against these fast-to-death types. Only a desperate plea by President Rajapaksa made this intrepid man to take a glass of water and end the fast even though Ban Ki-Moon did not call off his committee. Such is the stuff our heroes are made of. We tried to find out whether comrade Weerawansa was in the Sri Lanka delegation to the UN now in New York but the names of delegates are all hush-hush.

There is another unsung hero, Mervyn Silva the enforcer of public morals and duties walking about with a coir rope in hand to tie in any straying miscreants against the sacred Mahinda Chintanaya to the nearest tree. He too does not seem to be included in the UN delegation even though he could have put up cut-outs dwarfing the UN towers of glass and concrete. Perhaps he was not heroic enough for selection.

Tragic heroes

Coming back to Fonseka’s heroism, he is of the tragic kind. Indeed most heroes in history and literature belong to this category ranging from Romeo, Macbeth, Julius Caesar, Napoleon and Hitler (if one may call him a hero or villain). Fonseka was tried by two Courts Martial which he said had no legal powers to try him. Nonetheless he was tried and convicted. One charge on which he has been convicted is for violation of procurement procedures. As the JVP has pointed out he is facing a three-year jail term for violating procurement procedures whereas those exposed by parliamentary watchdog committees COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises) and PAC (Public Accounts Committee) as well as the Auditor General remain, untouched. Justice?

We are not commenting on decisions of the two Courts Martial but on those who framed charges against him. On the other hand what happened to a Special Commission of three Supreme Court judges appointed on arms procurement following many top military officers being accused of shady deals? Not a word has been heard. The report, if any, remains confidential.

Another fallen hero

Gen. Fonseka is not the only top military leader to fall from grace — from hero to villain. Gen. Anuruddha Ratwatte, former Deputy Minister of Defence who was acclaimed as the ‘Sapumal Kumaraya’ (a Sinhala Hero who conquered Jaffna) after he drove out Velupillai Prabhakaran and the LTTE from the Jaffna Peninsula to the Wanni, is now facing charges for having undeclared sums of money in bank vaults after being acquitted earlier by the Court of Appeal.

Heroes genuine or fake find Sri Lanka a hostile ground to survive.