In his first press conference Gen. Sarath Fonseka has said he is ready to join hands with even the LTTE remnants and Prabakaran’s kith and kin to defeat President Mahinda Rajapaksa.  Whom is the retired general trying to destroy and whom is he trying to resurrect by this call?  As a presidential candidate the country is entitled to seek answers from him.

Rajapaksa family had been in active politics for several decades long prior to President Mahinda Rajapaksa becoming President.  The President’s father, his uncle, his brother and cousins had served this country as Ministers and deputies. The role played by President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brothers in liberating this country, saddled with three decades of terrorism and in uniting a country divided under the CFA of 2002, would be remembered with honour and respect.

It is this leadership which provided the political will and the military skill as well as the financial support and diplomatic rapport for the country’s armed forces.  Without these, this war could not have been won, peace could not have been restored.  The armed forces successfully ended the war thanks to the determination of the political leadership.  

In his first press conference Gen. Sarath Fonseka has said he is ready to join hands with even the LTTE remnants and Prabakaran’s kith and kin to defeat President Mahinda Rajapaksa.  Whom is the retired general trying to destroy and whom is he trying to resurrect by this call?  As a presidential candidate the country is entitled to seek answers from him.

Having worked with this leadership for at least four years as one team, the issues the general had raised after his recent visit to the US are clearly trivial and personal.

His willingness to tie-up even with the remnant LTTE fighters, even before they are rehabilitated and to join hands with Prabakaran’s parents reveal a sudden inspiration which could not have originated from Sri Lankan soil.

It is regrettable that Mr. Sarath Fonseka has resorted to dishonourable tactics to win, come what may! His call to the remnant  LTTE cadres shows up Fonseka as a man ready to pawn himself to any devilish force, internal or external.

Fonseka has not ruled out international war crimes investigations, in the event of his winning the Presidency.  He is ready to expose to external forces not only the political leadership which won the war, ended terrorism and brought about peace in this country, but he is also ready to let down the country’s armed forces when he said, ‘he would not try to cover up any wrongdoing on the part of the armed forces’. He is of course right for pledging not to cover up any wrong doing. But, what Fonseka should have said if at all, is that he would deal with such wrongdoing within the country in accordance with national laws and would refuse to hand them over to countries looking for regime change here.

There is little doubt that Fonseka is ready to be a cats paw of foreign powers hell bent on war crimes charges to settle his personal scores with two of his immediate bosses, Secretary Defence and the President.

It must be remembered that Fonseka’s main complaint for joining the ranks of his own political enemies, who jeered and slandered him all the way from Pamankade  to Alimankade et al, was founded on his alleged discovery that as Chief of Defence Staff, he did not have the operational responsibility over the armed forces.

Obviously Fonseka’s entry into politics is motivated by personal enmity  to settle scores with his former bosses and not by any altruistic reasons of any national importance.  He had allowed his own letter of resignation to be prepared by political parties in the opposition.  That is sufficient evidence that he had become a willing cats-paw!

That Fonseka was not motivated by any altruistic concerns of national importance is also evidenced by Fonseka deleting from his letter of resignation, drafted by those who slandered him at the height of the war, the very paragraph that dealt with alleged hardship faced by the people’, ‘waste and corruption, ‘media freedom’ and ‘curtailment of democratic rights’.

Gen. Fonseka has announced himself as a presidential candidate.  His conduct, character and inclinations are relevant factors, in deciding his suitability for the highest position in the country. What has become obvious is that his issues with the powers that be are clearly matters of self interest!

His willingness to join hands with the remnants of the LTTE, his readiness to subject the country for international war crimes probes and his allowing himself to be a pawn in the hands of the discredited opposition would demonstrate that he may soon stand exposed as a puppet in the lap of external forces.

On the contrary, President Mahinda Rajapaksa had protected  the dignity and sovereignty of this country by resisting all undue foreign pressures to stop the war, even as General Sarath Fonseka was in far away China from May 10th to 17th in the final and critical week of the war which saw the end of Prabhakaran!