Divided We Fail and United We Prevail : Sri Lankan Politics and Our War Heroes
>> Friday, November 13, 2009
Yesterday heard the news that Sri Lankan army commander who led us to defeat LTTE got retired. It looked like a normal news, but once I looked at his resignation letter, it seemed lots of things had gone wrong for him.
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Army Commander General Sarath Fonseka,President Mahinda Rajapaksha and Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksha
We ended a 30 year war which hindered the prosperity and progress of our country. Every Sri Lankan was happy and then I thought now Sri Lanka is safer than even US. This couldn't have been possible without our president Mahinda Rajapaksha, Defense Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksha and our army commander Sarath Fonseka. Even with all the international pressure and various other forces, this trio proved the fact that we can win the war without any foreign support.
Sarath Fonseka, irrespective of his political intentions, if any, is still one of the heroes in the country. He fought for our country and on April 25, 2006 he even survived an assassination attempt when an LTTE suicide bomber attacked his motorcade (so did Gotabhaya Rajapaksha in December 2006).
But now it seems there is a friction between the president and the commander, making him even to resign and enter in to politics to compete with the president. This is very very bad for the unity of the country. Also I'm sure he still have death threats from LTTE supported and removing/reducing his security guards is not a prudent thing.
In some sense I liked Sarath Fonseka being the next presidential candidate from the opposition, because then we will see a real and heated election campaigns going on between the two parties (as you might probably know, the current opposition leader is way behind current president and must have lost more than 20 consecutive elections).
But the problem is
1. We will be divided once again. Every Sri Lankan loved our army commander and president for ending this war. But when these two are on two different sides what will happen to the people?
2. The opposition was trying to get in to power for a long time and this time they will take undue advantage of the commander, making Mr. Fonseka also become notorious for all the bad things they have done.
For once I thought everything is gonna be alright. But now I'm not feel good about that. Earlier we suffered because of the separatist terrorists. Now we will suffer because of our own people.
1 comments:
I agree with you. First I should say Lankatruth is JVP website. They are notorious about manipulating facts. I think his 800 army personal will be reduced. Since he is retired. He should be given sercurity of a retired personal + extra for LTTE threat. But I think government can not give sercurity to do him popular politics. It do not hope that will happen.
I think there will be three way fight. Ranil will definetly make TNA, Mano and Hakeem to reject his candidacy throuth their alliance. So SF will be common candidate of JVP and Mangala. Ranil is cunnig person. Otherwise he can not be the UNP leader for so many years.
I am not agreed about SF's resignation letter. It is too political. As a top commander he should have not come to public with this. This happens between head of state and army officers. Think of Kobbekaduwa, Janka Pere etc. There should be complete trust. So here I am not critisizing MR for sidelining SF, especilly after seeing this letter. He has also tried to influenced MR about is sucessor. That is too much work.
Winning the war is a collective effort. It is MR political leadership to start with. If anyother person was there there will be anything. Then Gota. He make SF to be appointed as head of army 12 days before his retirement. Then Navy, Air force. Then Lashman Kadiragamar for weekening the LTTE. Even chandika+Ratwatte for freeing Jaffna. If they had not done that it will be impossible to launch this offensive. Then Ranil(unknowinly) for dividing LTTE karuna fraction. There are lot of people behind this.
I am really sad to see people like Mangala,UNP and JVP(the current lot tried to topple the governement at the budget. It was Wimal who destroed that attempt) try to own SF. They all wish(may be no JVP) we would have lost the war. If you read internation media you can see how happy they about this development.
I am still thinking SF would think intelligently. But as you said divided we fail united we prevail. I am not sure who is really behind this devision. May be some forign intelligence, just may be.
Human behaviour flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge. ≈ Plato ≈
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