When the then Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka in an act of infantile spite drastically reduced the security of General Parakrama Pannipitiya, he would not have imagined that the same criminal iniquity would be done unto him barely a year later.
Gen. Pannipitiya had led the battle against the LTTE in the East. The Tigers were still a fighting force, and still capable of dealing death blows to their enemies. Therefore General Pannipitiya was facing a threat to his life and by any objective standard his security should have been enhanced. Unfortunately he had fallen foul of the all powerful Gen. Fonseka, who ran the army like a private fiefdom. And Gen. Fonseka, in an act that was professionally incorrect and ethically indefensible, reduced the security of Gen. Pannipitiya, thereby placing his life at risk.
That was the time Gen. Fonseka could do no wrong, in the eyes of President Mahinda Rajapakse and Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapakse. Both went along with this venomously petty deed, because that was how affairs were handled in those halcyon days of the Rajapakse – Fonseka triumvirate. Using the provision of security as a way of rewarding friends and punishing detractors had become a norm by this time. Whenever a leading figure fell foul of the power wielders, his security was reduced or removed, while those who backed the regime got excessive security. Eventually Gen. Pannipitiya had to seek judicial intervention in order to get himself some security; today the same sad fate had befallen Gen. Fonseka.
The Rajapakse brothers and General Fonseka, together, won the war. They also did it in a manner that was, at the least, questionable. But any attempt to question the manner in which they waged the war was regarded as treachery and treated accordingly. When German media broke the story of civilian deaths in an air attack by the German Forces in Kunduz, Afghanistan (and of attempts at cover up by the German Army/Defence establishment), a political storm ensued.
Though the dead were not German citizens, but people who belonged to a different country, nationality and faith, Germany polity and society reacted with outrage. Heads began to roll, not of the media personnel who revealed the truth but of political and military leaders who tried to suppress the truth. The first to go was the Commander of the German Armed Forces, General Wolfgang Schneiderhan; next State Secretary Peter Wichert resigned; finally Franz Josef Jung, who was the Defence Minister at the time of the Kunduz air strike stepped down from his current post (as the Labour Minister). That is how democratic societies are expected to act in times of moral crises. In Sri Lanka there was no room for such transparency as the Rajapakse-Fonseka triumvirate, using a variety of means, muzzled the media. Today that secretive, repressive alliance is no more and thanks to the verbal skirmishes of these former allies, we may discover the true human cost of the humanitarian operation waged in our name.
Inhabiting Glass Houses
The charges and counter charges levelled against each other by the Rajapakse brothers and Gen. Fonseka will definitely enliven the Presidential election campaign. The crux of the matter, though, is that whatever charges the Rajapakse brothers may bring against General Fonseka, they too are guilty of the same crimes and misdemeanours, directly or indirectly. Similarly whatever charges General Fonseka may bring against the Rajapakse brothers, he too is guilty of the same crimes and misdemeanours, directly or indirectly.
For almost four years, they acted in unison; consequently they are all responsible for whatever the sins of commission and omission of that period. In that sense all three men live in glass houses and cannot afford to throw stones at each other without causing self-harm.
On 20th April 2006, the cabinet (under the leadership of President Rajapakse) gave approval for the incorporation of an entity named the Lanka Logistics and Technologies Ltd. Set up as a state owned company, the LLT functioned under the purview of the Ministry of Defence, Public Security, Law and Order (the Minister of which is President Mahinda Rajapakse and the Permanent Secretary is Gotabhaya Rajapakse). The official website of the company describes its role in the following manner: “The primary objective of the company is to facilitate the procurement of equipment and services for the Sri Lanka Army, Navy, Air Force, Police and any other state owned institutions on request, in terms of the Policy Guidelines, Regulations and other directions as stipulated by the Government with reference to the National Procurement Guideline 2006”.
Thus the LLC was set up by the Rajapakse administration to handle all military purchases, from the smallest bullet to the biggest air craft. The government boasted that by centralising all weapons purchases under a state owned company, corruption which was prolific during the previous regimes, had been rooted out. Whenever the media hinted at the existence of corruption in weapons purchasing, the government reacted with venomous rage, accusing the scribes of being traitors, in the pay of the LTTE. After all the company’s shareholders consisted of the crème de la crème of the Rajapakse regime and the Lankan state. According to a report in The Sunday Times, the initial shareholders were Gotabhaya Rajapakse (100 shares), Dr. PB Jayasundara (100 shares), Air Chief Marshall Donald Perera (1 share), Gen. Sarath Fonseka (1 share), Air Marshall Roshan Gunatillake (1 share), Vice Admiral Wasantha Karannagoda (1 share) and IGP Victor Perera (1 share). With such illustrious share holders, how could corruption in weapons purchases be possible? And if there was corruption in weapons purchases, then the entire security establishment is guilty of it, either directly or indirectly, from the Defence Minister to the IGP.
Given this background, it would make sense for the Rajapakse brothers and General Fonseka to impose some restraint on themselves and refrain from levelling charges which can very easily boomerang. Whether good sense has any place in a campaign motivated by anger and spite, hatred and pique, is quite another matter. Still the charges and the counter-charges that will become a staple in this election campaign might make ordinary Sri Lankans realise that in the eyes of their rulers (current and aspirant), patriotism ‘is nothing less than a tool for achieving their power hungry and money hungry goals’ (Christianity and Patriotism – Leo Tolstoy). This may have a badly needed sobering effect on those Southern masses still intoxicated by the potent brew of triumphalism and patriotism.
Impossible Choices
The recent SLFP Convention indicated what the country can expect if Mahinda Rajapakse wins the Presidential election with a wide margin and the UPFA succeeds in getting a two thirds majority in parliament (or a win close enough). In his welcoming address, Minister Maitripala Sirisena declared that President Rajapakse will lead this country for the next 20 years.
Juxtapose this declaration with Mr. Rajapakse’s intention to reform the Presidential system (announced at his recent meeting with media heads) and the inescapable conclusion is a constitutional reform which will keep the Presidential system in place while removing the most democratic component in it – the provision on term limits. This is the only way President Rajapakse can lead the country for the next 20 years.
When he was a member of the ruling triumvirate, when he had the power to abuse power in the name of national security, Gen. Fonseka was as absolutist, as intolerant, as Sinhala supremacist as the Rajapakse Brothers. Had the Rajapakse – Fonseka triumvirate remained intact, post-war, nothing could have impeded the full implementation of the profoundly anti-democratic political project of the Ruling Family. The opposition was too weak and the judiciary too passive to act as effective deterrents to the megalomanic plans of the Rajapakses. Only a split either in the Rajapakse Family or in the ruling bloc could have impeded the Rajapakses’ rapid goose-stepping towards absolutist rule. The Rajapakse – Fonseka break-up and the consequent entry of General Fonseka into politics as an opponent of the Ruling Family has given Sri Lanka’s internally threatened democracy a modicum of relief.
But to see in the Fonseka candidacy a panacea for all the ills of Rajapakse rule would be another monumental mistake. Whatever promises Candidate Fonseka might make, no individual or entity can compel a President Fonseka to implement them. If he wins the Presidency, General Fonseka can repudiate his promises outright or follow a policy of permanent prevarication; or he can implement the promises selectively. Most Lankan parliamentarians are open to blandishments by those in power. Therefore a President Fonseka might be able to build his own independent power base by winning over parliamentarians elected on the SLFP, the UNP or the JVP ticket. He will also be able to appeal to a section of the Armed Forces; if he wins, the Sinhala supremacist forces may be more than willing to abandon the Rajapakses and rally round him. Therefore there is a distinct possibility of a victorious General Fonseka trying to implement his own agenda, an agenda at variance with his pre-election undertakings.
And if he does so, there is very little the UNP or the JVP can realistically do to impede him and hold him to his promises.
Though the Fonseka candidacy can become a formidable threat to the Rajapakses, they can still recover from it and move towards establishing dynastic rule. If Mr. Rajapakse can win the Presidential election, in the first round, with a sufficiently wide margin, if he can prevent his image from becoming too tarnished in the propaganda skirmishes which will precede the polls, he may yet be able to guide the UPFA to a substantial victory at the parliamentary elections.
On the other hand General Fonseka’s volte face clearly demonstrates the fluidity with which alliances can become decomposed and recomposed in Sri Lanka. Under changed circumstances, these new alliances too can be unmade and remade, with equally opportunistic rapidity.
Consequently a Fonseka victory at the Presidential election can be tantamount to rushing headlong into an unknown and unknowable territory. This is Sri Lanka’s Scylla and Charybdis moment indeed.
- Asian Tribune -
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