[lg policy] Sri Lanka: The General speaks his mind

Tue Dec 1 15:24:00 UTC 2009

The General speaks his mind

Ending weeks of speculation General Sarath Fonseka RWP RSP VSV USP,
former commander of the Sri Lankan Army and Chief of Defense Staff has
formally declared his intention to be the candidate of the combined
opposition for the post of president of the repblic. In doing so, he
has broken ranks with his former commander in chief, whose re-election
effort he will now contest and oppose. In declaring his candidacy
Sarath Fonseka in his maiden press conference at the Jaic Hilton, laid
out the contours of what would be the main policy platform on which he
will contest the election.

The electability of the General we are told by his political patrons
including Rauf Hakeem and Mangala Samaraweera is due to a deep desire
of the people for a change of government. That after four years in
office, the electorate has grown tired of Mahinda Rajapaksa as Head of
State and government. Whatever reasons have caused these gentlemen to
come to that conclusion, the preceding series of provincial council
elections, as well as various opinion polls do not seem to indicate
that Mahinda Rajapaksa is a deeply unpopular leader. On the contrary
he has seen a significant rise in his popularity since his original
razor thin election in 2005 as the electorate has given him credit for
eradicating LTTE terrorism and as a response to his folksy manner and
general populist appeal. It would be a tough sell for General Fonseka
to argue that President Rajapaksa deserves no credit for winning the
war but that he the General does. A more reasonable argument might be
that there is shared credit, including most importantly with the many
officers and other ranks of the security forces that laid down their
lives in the line of duty over the course of the war.

However the issues outlined by candidate Fonseka at the commencement
of his election campaign deserve close examination as they are an
alternative agenda or vision for the future of Sri Lanka. Firstly we
are told that the key platform would be the restoration of democracy
and the implementation of the 17th amendment to the constitution. It
is an indictment on our nation, polity and society that implementing
the law and the constitution is an election issue. One would assume
that laws and indeed the constitution is indeed implemented in any law
abiding society governed by the rule of law. But clearly when it comes
to the 13th and 17th amendments to the Sri Lankan Constitution and
other laws in our country including fundamental rights, anti
corruption, anti torture, anti discrimination and language policy
among others, clearly this is not so.

 The reason of course why society has accepted this position for so
long, or at least over the past three decades have been the existence
of the civil conflict. We have come to accept the rationale that
President JR Jayewardene argued for us when he defended governance by
emergency regulation and quoted Cicero in the Roman Senate that in the
war of good against evil, the laws are silent. This was even before
the LTTE period and President Jayewardene had to come up with a
“Naxalite” threat to postpone elections via a referendum, legalize
detentions without trials, have forced confessions accepted in Court,
eliminate the presumption of innocence until proven guilty and
generally condone if not be complicit in anti Tamil violence including
in July 1983 and other forms of political violence including post
election violence.  Periodically at election times, the national
polity does some introspective self examination and pledges to clean
up its act. Mercifully we have made some progress since then, there
have been no more ethnic riots, no more postponing of elections
through referendums, the State monopoly on TV news has ended and
Supreme Court Judges houses are not stoned.

The current presidential election though is more significant since it
is the first in the post war, post LTTE period and the winner will
have the responsibility to shape post war Sri Lankan society. The
challenges are formidable. Firstly though we can closely examine the
basic framework of the emergency law regime that governs our nation
and her peoples. With Prabhakaran, Pottu Amman and Co., including
their terror tactics, lying buried somewhere near the Nanthikadal
lagoon in Mullativu the terror regime is over. We have not had a
single terrorist attack by any cadres roaming free since then and
indeed Sri Lanka is renegotiating war risk insurance, travel
advisories and other war situation related matters internationally and
we should well be renegotiating the suspension of fundamental rights
through emergency laws as well. The physical aspects of security, the
ubiquitous check points etc., can perhaps remain awhile as a
precautionary measure but the suspension of normal laws through
emergency should be closely examined for its absolute necessity
factor.

General Fonseka should perhaps explain to the country why right after
the war was won, he was arguing for adding one hundred thousand more
troops to the Army. One might have assumed that more education, health
care, agriculture and developmental workers were needed in a post
conflict situation, but General Fonseka’s vision of a post war Sri
Lanka was a standing armed forces strength increasing twenty percent
from a current nearly four hundred thousand including the active
reserves, auxiliary and the STF to half a million, larger than the
militaries of Britain or Australia and the most militarized, in per
capita terms and as a percentage of GDP,  country in South Asia. The
world over, countries demobilize after a war is over.

The other issue that faces post war Sri Lanka is securing the peace.
We have a deeply divided and polarized society, which requires healing
through a reconciliation process. The civil war may be over but the
causes of the conflict, the ethnic tensions remain unresolved and we
as a nation need to move forward fast in a new social compact that
will ensure that no future Prabhakaran rises up again and also to
become a more equitable and just society. Towards this end, a
framework for some progress is maximum devolution through the 13th
amendment to the constitution and full implementation of the equal
language provisions existing in law. President Rajapaksa’s commitment
to the latter has been his successful mastery of the Tamil language
during his first term in office. General Fonseka has at the Jaic press
conference only offered to study the 13th amendment for possible
lessons to be learnt, as opposed to implementing it and is on record
that minorities should not make “undue” demands.  The creation of a
truly Sri Lankan identity that encompasses and takes into account the
multi ethnic, multi religious and multi lingual nature of our society
probably requires a broad minded understanding of who we are as a
people and a national outlook that is able to look beyond the  narrow
bounds and prism of ethnicity, creed and culture.

(The writer served as an Advisor to President Kumaratunga from 2001 to 2005)

http://www.dailymirror.lk/DM_BLOG/Sections/frmNewsDetailView.aspx?ARTID=69463
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