Retirements make Generals turn jokers

General Sarath Fonseka’s letter addressed to the President, seeking retire from the Sri Lanka Army, was marked confidential with an annexure which was also marked confidential.

But text of the letter is there every where splashed on the front pages of newspapers. It makes me wonder whether the General understands what he meant by the word ‘confidential’.

Para 14 and 15 and the allegations levelled there in the letter are ridiculous.

Particularly Para 14 about the IDPs! General Sarath Fonseka talking about IDPs? Well it is like a wolf guarding goats.

Anyone and everyone can speak of IDPs and their plight but not the General. By any stretch of imagination

Read what he wrote. You will agree with me.

He wrote as follows: “14.The plight of the IDPs is also a point of great concern to me. Thousands of valiant soldiers sacrificed their valuable lives to liberate these unfortunate civilians from the brutality and tyranny of the LTTE in order that they could live in an environment of freedom and democracy. Yet, today many of them are continuing to live in appalling conditions due to the lack of proper planning on the part of the government and the IDPs who have friends and relatives elsewhere in the country must be given the choice to live with them until proper demining has been done in their areas.”

Gen Fonseka and his concern for IDPs! What a Joke. Indeed it is the biggest joke ever uttered by any professional joker.

Everybody knows that when President Mahinda Rajapaksa wanted to start the resettlement process, this very General Fonseka had stalled the move. Does he need reminding today that he had carried the day by claiming that more than 10, 000 LTTE cadres were lurking in the midst of the IDPs and by insisting on a thorough screening before resettling them.

My dear Mr. General tell us where are those 10,000 LTTEs you said hiding behind the displaced people.

Don’t you even remotely feel remorse for delaying the resettlement in the process?

Only because of you President, his ministers and officers and all others involved with the resettlement process were forced to delay the process of resettling the displaced families.

Only because of you, Mr General, the IDP camps remained there for long and have invited international focus.

Now, this very gentleman, who was responsible for delaying the resettlement process, has begun to shed crocodile tears. He is now appalled at IDPs continuing to live in appalling conditions.

And he is advocating that IDPs must be given the choice to live with their friends and relatives.

But will you tell us Mr General what happened to this concern for the IDPs till Nov 12, the day you wrote your resignation letter. Don’t’ harbour the impression that the IDPs will be impressed by your sudden outburst of pity and concern and will become your admirers. Don’t entertain the notion that the Tamils in the IDP welfare centres will vote for you if you enter the presidential race.

General Fonseka! The only charitable remark, I can make is, you have proved more faster than a chameleon. No sooner you decided to resign to take a dip in politics, your language and your demeanour has changed.

Does Fonseka need reminding that it only on 23 September 2008, he, as Sri Lanka’s Army Commander, had given an interview to Stewart Bell of the National Post (newspaper) of Canada, and that he had made some disquieting observations – not expected of a General, whose army has members of all ethnic groups in the country.

"I strongly believe”, the General told the interviewer,” that this country belongs to the Sinhalese but there are minority communities and we treat them like our people...We being the majority of the country, 75%, we will never give in and we have the right to protect this country...We are also a strong nation ... They (the minorities) can live in this country with us.

But they must not try to, under the pretext of being a minority, demand undue things…”

He spoke of Sinhala nation and not as Sri Lanka and as a Sri Lankan. He displayed Sinhala ethnocentrisms and chauvinistic mentality in that interview by spewing discrimination towards the minority communities in that country. . He was not prepared to consider, Sinhalese, Muslims and Tamils as Sri Lankans and to concede the basic tent that this country belongs to both the majority and minority communities, like in a country, anywhere, always.

Strangely, while depriving the Muslims and Tamils of the joint ownership of the country with the Sinhalese brethrens, General Fonseka has berated the efforts of winning hearts and minds of the Tamils.

This is what he wrote in his resignation letter. Read for yourself. Reach your own conclusion by reading what he had written.

In Para 15, which I had said at the outset, a ridiculous piece, he wrote: “Your Excellency’s government has yet to win the peace in spite of the fact that the Army under my leadership won the war. There is no clear policy to win the hearts and minds of the Tamil people, which will surely ruin the victory, attained paving the way for yet another uprising in the future”.

President Mahinda Rajapakse in his humanitarian campaign managed to liberate the Tamils from the iron clutches of Prabhakaran and his Tamil chauvinistic terrorist gang. During a recent visit to the Wanni region, President Rajapaksa spoke to valiant army men along with the new Commander of the army. He urged the men in uniform to win the hearts and minds of the Tamil.

Already at the political level the President has been taking several measures to embrace the Tamils and Muslim communities and he has started winning the hearts and minds of the minority communities.

Mahinda Rajapaksa was the first head of state to address the UN General Assembly on September 2008 in Tamil language followed by the Sinhala language. So far no other world leader including a leader from India where Tamil is an old classic language spoken by a large community, has ever addressed the UN in the Tamil language.

Already majority of the Tamil speaking Muslims are with him. The Provincial Council polls in the East clearly displayed the support of the Tamils and Tamil speaking Muslims to Mahinda’s political ideology.

The up-country Tamils are with the Mahinda Rajapaksa and with the UPFA.

Even in the last Jaffna Municipal election, local Tamils overwhelmingly voted for the UPFA.

So the question that should stare at the General who is entering political arena to secure the Tamil vote for his Presidential dreams is: where are the Tamils who will vote for me?

General Sarath Fonseka in his letter requesting for his retirement from the Army asked for an elaborate security detail – ‘trained combat soldiers, a suitable vehicle with sufficient protection (Bullet proof) and escort vehicles for my conveyances due to the fact that I am considered as one of the highest priority targets by the LTTE, which they are yet capable of achieving’

Referring to the security being provided to a former naval chief, Fonseka wrote : “ Also, I wish to bring to Your Excellency’s kind notice that over 100 men, six escort vehicles and a bullet proof vehicle have been placed at the convenience of the former Commander of the Navy, Admiral WKJ Karannagoda. I presume that such arrangements would be made available to me, considering the threat factor I am facing, which Your Excellency is well aware of’.

It is possible that the Government might consider providing adequate security, but not as that has been provided to the former Navy Commander, as he is still in the Government service as Secretary to the Ministry of Highways and also the National Security Advisor to the President.

When Army men in service requested personal security, Sarath Fonseka as Army Commander always turned down such requests. Take the case of Maj Gen Parami Kulathunge, the chief of staff. His assassination on 26 June 2006 took place because Sarath Fonseka did not allow him to take residence in the Army HQ.

"Major General Parami Kulatunge gave leadership to massive military operations against LTTE, with leaders such as the late Gen. Denzil Kobbekaduwa and General Vijaya Wimalaratne. He defeated the enemy courageously during the Vadamarachchi, Valampoori, Yal Devi and Jaya Sikuru operations. He was a military leader, who took the forefront against operations unleashed by the LTTE.

Major General Kulatunge was a commanding officer of Jaffna and during that period he became popular among Jaffna civilians. He rendered a priceless service to uplift civilian life in Jaffna. As such, the army said he had been a target of the LTTE."

Fonseka’s ill-treatment of former commanders is legendary. He assumed that he was the only brave soldier when the real commanders were fighting the ground war and laying their life in the service of the nation.

Fonseka never commanded troops at the ground level during this war, though he is boasting so much about his skills.

Some of the utterances Fonseka made almost halted the war and brought unnecessary pressure on the government.

The early days of Fonseka as a Junior Officer must be examined. Also why had he held on to several quarters in the Army HQ.

While being responsible for the death of a legendry soldier and many others by not providing security arrangements, Gen Fonseka now begs the President for post retirement security. What an audacity? Did we not hear the adage: cart might go in a boat and one day the boat too might go in the cart!

- Asian Tribune -