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Asian Tribune is published by World Institute For Asian Studies|Powered by WIAS Vol. 11 No. 296               

In transition: Steamy General Side up in public view -Who is this Wild Vulgar Army Officer?

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Tragedy for democracy in Sri Lanka

It is a tragedy for democracy in Sri Lanka that all it has been able to produce as an Opposition candidate to contest the Presidency is a person whose poor judgement has been reconfirmed by the insistance of the Sunday Leader Editor that the interview given by the General where he let down his own troops, his commander , his subordinates and his superiors, was quoted accurately, and who is yet to respond to accusations about his possible involvement in numerous scandals involving his son in law, and now, a person with questionable traits in his moral character if the allegations contained in the document that is circulating in Sri Lanka are correct. As predicted by many including this commentator, a man who was held in high esteem as Sri Lanka's Army Commander, has now become an ordinary politician with a lot of mud on him. Whether all these allegations are credible or not, one has to take note that there cannot be so much smoke without any fire. This once much respected Army Commander will never be able to wash all the mud on him, and the Opposition will not be able to parade him as their "Mr Clean" anymore, as that has now become the least credible traits of their candidate.

Officer and the Un-gentleman

Most of the information listed in the article is common knowledge in the military circles for years. Very appointment of Sarath Fonseka as the Army Commander was a surprise for most of the officers and men. Parami Kulathunge's demise was directly attributed to SF actions. However, most of the men also had one mission to get rid of the LTTE. For that the combination of this callus officer and the Defence Secretary who provided the real leadership was a good combination.
The beginning of the war SF was absent from the theatre nursing wounds from the bomb blast in Singapore. By the time he was able to assume duties the initial phase of the war was successfully completed. If not for the success of SLN to destroy the floating weapons arsenal, Army would have done very little. It took more than 4 months to move 4km from Mankulam due to heavy barrage of mortar. However, due to the success or SLN they Army managed to advance without fear.
Since then it has come to common knowledge that SF was in China on a private mission seeking more ammunition with his family visiting the great wall when the war ended. It perhaps resulted in displeasure of SF with the government who did not want to accept the infamous arms shipment worth 40 million dollars ordered by him.
Finding assistance from Presidential Scholarship Fund to send his daughter to study in US is also legendary of this Army Officer who speaks with vengeance now. However, he has been a man working on a different agenda to make difficulties for the government from the beginning. The utterance that SL belongs to Sinhala is famous. That statement could have derailed the war at a very crucial time.
A person who insisted to raise the Army strength by further 100,000 men after the war was very questionable given to statements SF is making since he retired from the Army. It would have been a real burden for Sri Lankan government to pay for additional soldiers on top of existing 200,000 men. This man perhaps had sinister ideas going by his own words coming out recently.

Even though it is not

Even though it is not relevant in the current context, having a stronger military is something we need to look at in the near future. May be it is SLN we need to expand, not SLA. A small country like Sri Lanka shall always be prepared for the war we will never have to fight. It shall be a simultaneous process to improve SLDF and economy. Nevertheless, true intents of Fonseka for raising a bigger SLA is questionable, in retrospect.



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