As a former fan of General Sarath Fonseka, let me present a fair comparison of two military commanders, who aspired to become politicians, before the newly found Eelamist friends of General Fonseka (or he himself) exploits General Dwight David Eisenhower’s victory at the United States presidential election of 1952, to argue that General Fonseka can win the next Sri Lanka presidential election.

The Allied Forces won the so-called Second World War in 1945 and the incumbent President of the USA at that time was Harry Truman, who represented the Democratic Party. Eisenhower, who was the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe since the establishment of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force in 1943 until victory in 1945, won the Presidential Election in 1952 as the Republican Party candidate, ending 20 years of Democratic Party rule to become Truman’s successor.

It is true that General Eisenhower not only turned into an opposition politician and contested against the party of the president, under whose leadership the US (and Allied) forces achieved victory, but also became the President of the USA at the very first election he contested. But this comparison is not complete without mentioning a few other facts. It is equally true that the so-called World War was almost fully fought under the leadership of Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) and Hitler died barely 18 days after the death of FDR. The very first presidential election held after the war victory was won by Truman and using Eisenhower’s reputation as the military commander of the Allied Forces at the 1948 presidential election was hardly considered. And Eisenhower never contested (or even contemplated contesting) against FDR or Truman, under whose able leadership he served as the Supreme Commander.

But the main difference between Fonseka and Eisenhower is that Fonseka is going to become the candidate of a pro-LTTE political alliance, whereas Eisenhower never allowed his reputation to be tarnished by joining a pro-Nazi party. The Republican Party was the main opposition party in the USA during the Second World War, but unlike the main opposition party in Sri Lanka, the Republican Party was hardly pro-enemy.

The UNP and JVP, which voted against the government budget proposals in 2008, have no right whatsoever to claim a stake in the victory against the LTTE. The UNP and JVP, which were waiting for the government to lose at the battlefront, so that they could win at elections, joined hands in 2008 to topple the Mahinda Rajapaksha government, because the survival of the government had become a mandatory factor for the successful completion of operations against the LTTE. If the government had lost the budget vote in 2008, parliament would have been dissolved before the final defeat of the LTTE and it is clear that such an eventuality would have upset General Fonseka’s military plans against the LTTE as well.

The behaviour of the UNP and JVP during the military operations against the LTTE should be compared with that of the Republican Party whose political future was not dependent upon FDR’s military failures. In fact, Wendell Willkie, who contested against FDR as the Republican candidate at the 1940 Presidential Election, served as a personal representative of the President or an Ambassador at Large in the FDR government. Can such patriotism be expected from Ranil

Wickramasinghe or Tilvin Silva? We remember how Ranil Wickramsinghe was touring Europe and making statements as the opposition leader so that Western powers could use them to frame so-called war crimes charges against the leadership of the Sri Lankan military establishment, including General Fonseka. It should not be forgotten that most of the countries governed by the Christian Democratic friends of Ranil Wickramasinghe voted against Sri Lanka at Geneva.

It is clear that the UNP leadership bamboozled Major General Janaka Perera into believing that the UNP could win the North Central Provincial Council Election saying that the JVP was contesting separately at that election and that the SLFP won in 2004 and 2005 only because it had the support of the JVP. Similarly, it is clear that the UNP leadership is ‘selling’ General Fonseka the story that he can win the next Presidential election, saying that it is the victory against the LTTE that the government is ‘selling’ to the masses and General Fonseka can ‘sell’ it better than the government.

Both the UNP leadership and possibly General Fonseka are sadly mistaken. It is true that the military operations against the LTTE and the leaders who executed them were extremely popular, but what is at the foundation of the popularity of the government’s military efforts was the legitimate desire of the Sinhalese to have their due place in this country which they were enjoying before the European invasions. Defeating the LTTE was consistent with that desire and because of that, people tolerated all the economic hardships due to the inflated military budget. If Fonseka decides to join forces with those whose aim is to prevent the Sinhalese from regaining their lost place in this country, in order to retain the undue privileges these forces have been enjoying since the colonial era, the Sinhalese will not think twice about putting him in his place.

General Eisenhower became the President of the USA for two consecutive terms because of his patriotism, but if General Fonseka thinks that he can abuse his reputation, which he has earned due to the efforts of others as well, to rescue the future of two bankrupt political parties, which have earned the wrath of the masses, solely due to their attempts to sabotage the government’s military efforts, which Fonseka himself is planning to ‘sell’ to the people now, his fate would not be different from that of all the leaders who went against the will of the people and I am afraid that includes the leadership of the LTTE as well, which General Fonseka defeated convincingly.

If Fonseka does not believe in this, he can learn it the hard way.