Rise and fall of Fonseka

Sri Lanka's former army chief Gen. Sarath Fonseka's wife Anoma Fonseka tries to touch his hand from the glass pane as he arrives at high court in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Monday, Oct. 4, 2010. Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa approved a 30-month jail term for Fonseka on Thursday, confirming a military court verdict that he was guilty of fraud.

"From 4-Star General to R.I. Prisoner No.0/22032 forced to wear prison digs; to queue up for food and draw water is a hard fall. The 30 month sentence could well be one that was calculated to remove civic rights and the Parliamentary seat."

by Luxman-Arvind

(October 05, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Rarely has anyone risen so rapidly and controversially in the SLA in its history as the 60 year old Gardihewa Sarath Chandralal Fonseka- who lead the staggeringly and disproportionately large SLA between 2005 and 2009. The internal War was brought to close with the defeat of the dreaded LTTE together with its leader Velupillai Prabakaran and his top lieutenants under conditions still shrouded in mystery and conjecture. Fonseka continues to claim he “alone” won the war for President Rajapakse and the country. This hoarse claim that he repeated at Dharmasoka College, Ambalangoda when this - one of three of his alma maters- accorded him a reception naturally was to alert the Rajapakse Brothers their new found friend is clearly nursing his own high political ambitions. To put it bluntly - he is threatening the throne. Many within and outside the army dispute Fonseka’s shallow claim pointing out he was, in fact, out of the country in the weeks and days that culminated in the defeat of the LTTE leadership. They insist a war with several theatres under the supervision of different experienced offers cannot be controlled by a single source alone. Added to this is the contribution made both by the air force and the navy in substantially weakening the LTTE in their own strongholds. In any case, to suggest it was a joint and team-effort will not be an exaggeration despite former Indian Government Security Advisor Narayanan’s sophistric “the greatest General in the World” The General has caught the attention of much of the world and was regularly in the main news of the BBC, Al Jazeera and NDTV with his fall from grace in sharp contrast to his meteoric rise forming part of their programmes. Ironically, the common factor in both – was the hidden hands of political players of the upper league in the country. Perhaps therein lies a lesson for the future that the army and the political system should be far away as possible from each other. The co-habitation between India’s 1.5 million army and the political leadership offers a good example in this regard. Whereas in the case of Pakistan, the growth of democratic traditions and institutions there were stunted by the unwelcome nexus between politicians and the uniformed gentry there resulting in the killing of more than one Pakistani political head since 1947.

Never in the history of the Lankan army was politics and politicians to play such a visible role in the promotion of one man as the head of the army as in the case of the cantankerous Fonseka. Promotions to the top slot until recently was usually by merit and from among reasonably educated and well-lettered men. That almost all of them came from the cream of the Island’s elite schools is yet another factor that bears its own relevance. It will be naïve to argue the decline and politicization of the SLA had much to do with early schooling and the social elitist factor. The head of the army should be someone who can hold his own in any intellectual discourse in his meetings , with the media within and abroad. I believe this was so until the time Gen. Balagalle headed the SLA.

It is political amateurishness to interfere with the process of promotion- notably at the higher levels of the army. When this happens eventually a huge price has to be paid – as in the case of Fonseka. It is that lack of political sagacity in the handling of the Fonseka Fiasco that brings an avalanche of trouble for the President and his brother – the Defence Secretary now with fears of War Crimes and Human Rights charges bringing them sleepless nights. There was sufficient space to have satisfactorily resolved that situation involving a super-ambitious Fonseka inebriated with the exuberance of his own imagined self-importance challenging the smoothsailing of the Rajapakse regime. It is an open secret Fonseka had amassed vast fortunes in the arms procurement process over a period of time. This has become far too routine in all government purchases to be disputed. That massive loot in local and foreign currency held in the vault of one single bank by a distant relative of Fonseka speaks for itself. The Rajapakses could not have been oblivious to the skeletons in the Fonseka cupboard – a vulnerability that seems to be gaining perfection since JRJ took those signed letters. All that was required was to ask the man to take full advantage of his US Green Card and stay away from politics and Sri Lanka for a few years with his family and all - in far away Oklahoma or wherever. That would have, I suspect, provided a win-win situation for both sides. Perhaps it is still not too late to give this a try with the Mahanayakas and others breathing down the Rajapakses neck.

Many in the know appear to feel it was more the President’s brother and Defence Secretary Gothabaya Rajapakse who won the war – from the time he backed General Sarath Fonseka to the top slot in the army way above many other seniors. That Fonseka earned the wrath of many senior officers in the army due to his irrational behavior and acerbic tongue came to the surface when there was hardly any rumbling of a serious nature when he was arrested and roughed up by the contingent of uniformed men who went to arrest him. That he lacked the finesse of The Officer and Gentleman culture of the well-heeled and early Sandhurt/West Point trained officers was exposed in the manner he had callously treated many colleagues at the time he was the army’s head. He clearly did not endear himself to the rank and file in the manner in which the late and popular Denzil Kobbekaduwa did. Fonseka’s indiscretions of a personal nature are now very much in the public domain and point out to sadistic and salacious inclinations. He has been known to treat his wife crudely in the presence of others rendering her to tears. When the urbane Kobbekaduwa met with his death under tragic and suspicious circumstances there was a real fear there could be a mutiny from within - with the support of both rankers and the official cadres of the SLA who were crying for revenge against Premadasa. It is also widely believed that the assassination attempt on Fonseka could not have taken place unless the suspect woman had logistical support from within. How she had penetrated the high-security SLA HQ and managed to pass out her surveillance data in a facility on a strict 24-hour close watch surprised many.

"The Rajapakses could not have been oblivious to the skeletons in the Fonseka cupboard – a vulnerability that seems to be gaining perfection since JRJ took those signed letters. All that was required was to ask the man to take full advantage of his US Green Card and stay away from politics and Sri Lanka for a few years with his family and all - in far away Oklahoma or wherever. That would have, I suspect, provided a win-win situation for both sides. Perhaps it is still not too late to give this a try with the Mahanayakas and others breathing down the Rajapakses neck."

The vitriolic language Fonseka often used against Gothabaya Rajapakse is indicative the personal vendetta is more between the two of them – once colleagues and close friends in the army – than with President Rajapakse. It was Fonseka’s lack of appreciation of world affairs and those of men and matters that he got caught in the vicious manouverings of the UNP and the JVP. A UNP that was inflicted a mortal blow by an indecisive and wimpish Wickramasinghe and a JVP that needed a life-line for political survival both came to the fore when they pitted Fonseka against Rajapakse. But the latter is a smooth and seasoned operator. He has turned tables against far shrewder and intellectually sharper opponents like Ranil and CBK more than once in recent times. What he lacks in high educational skills(Yes! technically a lawyer) Mahinda Rajapakse packs in being a sharp political survivor and tactician. Rajapakse may not have many men of the grey affairs brigade around him but he certainly seems to have some who had taught him the political cunning of Nicollo Machiavelli “It is better to be feared than loved” This is probably the country will witness in the coming years.

We have heard Tamils say the dominant diety Nalloor Kandan in the Kandasamy Temple General Fonseka visited and prayed with boiwed heard and clasped palms in Jaffna during his campaign has his own way of judging the piety of a pilgrim. Celestial beings, understandably, cannot be fooled as ordinary earthlings. Their extra-sensory perception (ESP) is of a different kind and fool-proof as can be imagined.

From 4-Star General to R.I. Prisoner No.0/22032 forced to wear prison digs; to queue up for food and draw water is a hard fall. The 30 month sentence could well be one that was calculated to remove civic rights and the Parliamentary seat. But if Fonseka – tutored in Amparai, Ambalangoda and for a few years at Ananda had access to the right reading material he would have learnt Samuel Johnson’s celebrated analogy “politics(patriotism) is the last refuge of scoundrels” a game he should never have got into in the first place. With the hard cement floor, unenviable company, absence of even a modest fan and the stench around he may come down to earth – as the Rajapakses may have calculated – and will soon be ready for a deal. After all, Fonseka’s health is bad and to survive he has to be in more ideal conditions. The rural breeze, greenery and scene in Oklahoma is no match to the dreary Welikade. He can be certain that in due time as Mario Puso remarked he will “get an offer he cannot refuse” And as all exciting tales end, they may live happily thereafter.