The West loses its plot in Sri Lanka as Rajapaksa wins

The people of Sri Lanka spoke loudly and clearly this time, indicating that they do not tolerate Sarath Fonseka -the dictator in waiting and the Western influence that comes with him into their nation

 (BY: Hasaka Rathnamalala - MISSISSAUAGA, CANADA)

NEARLY SIXTY per cent of the Sri Lankans chose incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa to run their country for another six years. This is the first island wide presidential election Sri Lanka has had since 1982, without any hindrance from the Tamil Tigers.

The other significant incident in this election was the sudden appearance of retired army commander, General Sarath Fonseka as the main presidential contender against President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Sri Lankans claim Fonseka’s appearance in the presidential race is a clear indication of the Western influence in Sri Lankan politics.

Sri Lankans also claim that since the success of the war against LTTE, western countries were looking for some one to replace Sri Lanka’s leadership. They claim, the West was looking for a clear regime change. But  the people of Sri Lanka spoke loudly and clearly this time, indicating that they do not tolerate Sarath Fonseka -the dictator in waiting and the Western influence that comes with him into their nation’s business any longer.

Sri Lankans feel that instead of congratulating Sri Lanka for defeating the world’s most ruthless terrorist organization, the Western powers were trying in many ways to drag Sri Lanka into war crimes tribunal and resurrect the separatist Tamil Tigers.

But the overwhelming majority of Sri Lankans decided that the leader, who brought them peace and harmony does not deserve any thing less than the presidency of their nation. General Sarath Fonseka on the other hand also led the army to defeat LTTE, but wanted to test his popularity in a separate way by contesting against his commander in chief.

Most Sri Lankans believe if Mahinda was not at the presidency, the West may have saved LTTE once more. It is not just a belief; actually that was what would have happened during Sri Lanka’s military campaign against LTTE, until President Rajapaksha ignored the huge pressure from European Union and the West to stop the operations.

Since then, Sri Lankans believe, the West preferred someone in the presidency whom they can control and General Sarath Fonseka was their choice. When considering the fact, that British back door politician James McGrath was the one who was behind Fonseka’s campaign for the presidency; this may not be just a heresy after all.

The reason the West preferred Sarath Fonseka over Ranil Wickramasinghe the leader of UNP (United National Party) to fight Mahinda could have been based on nothing, but their knowledge on heroic treatment received by the war heroes in the Sri Lankan society. But the West made a mistake by not understanding the Sri Lankan way of thinking. Above all, they didn’t understood how Sri Lankans would treat their traitors. Well, they just found out!

From the early days of elections, General Fonseka signaled that the he was in fact, the man the West preferred. In a press conference he said that he is planning to take Sri Lankan soldiers into war crimes tribunal. The man who led the war against LTTE eventually turned into a traitor in the minds of Sri Lankans. Did James McGrath put these words into the General’s mouth? When considering the immediate reaction from the West and the joyful reaction of LTTE fronts in the Diaspora, may be that is what the West just requested from this retired soldier.

It was well evident that the LTTE in the Diaspora start pumping money into Fonseka’s campaign. For example, a Canadian LTTE front collected money for an unknown development project in Batticloa area and all that landed in Fonseka’s campaign. They all were expecting a resurrection of separatist politics in Sri Lanka with the help of future West leaning, dictatorship of Fonseka.

Who are the other players in the General’s campaign; his main partner was the battered UNP the right wing political party of Sri Lanka, which took the side of LTTE on the request of the West through out the Sri Lankan military campaign against that organization. The leader Ranil Wickramasinghe was publicly expecting defeat of the Sri Lankan security forces during the military campaign, while he was the opposition leader of the country. How on earth can some one trust such an irresponsible person? Such a traitor in Sri Lankan standards is not suitable for the post of opposition leader of any country.

Another main partner of General Fonseka’s alliance was the one-man political party leader Mangala Samaraweera who chose the same path as Ranil Wickramasinghe without any proper issues but due to his personal jealousy with Mahinda Rajapaksha and his cabinet. Another partner Mano Ganeshan is a racist Tamil leader who calls for international intervention on Sri Lanka to save the LTTE leader Prabakaran during the military campaign against LTTE. There is not much difference between him and the defeated Muslim Congress leader Rahuff Hakeem. Can a war hero join with a bunch of Sri Lanka bashers? He automatically became a traitor in the eyes of Sri Lankans.

Fonseka’s agreement with Tiger Appointed TNA (Tamil National Alliance) sealed the traitor’s deal in the eyes of Sri Lankan voters. But Fonseka’s camp managed to hide details of the TNA-Fonseka agreement from the Sri Lankan voters; therefore TNA lost their right to use Fonseka’s 40% as their mandate for a separate state.

Also there were tremendous amount of Tamil vote for President Mahinda Rajapaksha and tremendous amount of Sinhalese votes for Fonseka, without knowing the exact details of Fonseka-TNA agreement. Therefore, this election definitely was not a referendum for TNA to take its separatist agenda forward.

What about JVP? (Peoples Revolutionary Front) It has been a short-sighted political party which happens to be looking for the quickest method to grab the political power in Sri Lanka.

The theory or the explanation JVP had given to its low level cadres was, that they were expecting General Fonseka to step out from his agreement with JVP and became a military dictator. In such a situation, JVP believed, it will create an atmosphere for JVP to leave the General Fonseka and rise as the liberators and carry on Sri Lanka’s leftist revolution. A bloody theory, that Sri Lankans would never want to take place in their motherland again. Does a country that is just getting out from a huge mess after thirty long years, wants to have a bloody mess again? This cruel theory made thousands of JVPs to leave their party. JVP leaders shamefully isolated themselves and hid under the umbrella of a bunch of world class traitors; Sri Lankans say. They also claim that JVP leaders are getting funds from the West through one of their ghost leaders currently living in Australia. The West must have thought it was worthwhile to have JVP on Fonseka’s side because JVP was earlier considered as the king makers of the south.

What would be the situation if the General had got elected? We have enough evidence that he is not the person that he claims to be. It was becoming evident during the campaign that Yahapalanaya or the good governance was not in his practice while he was the commander of the Army. He was a commander who did not tolerate the sweat of a soldier. Women have had disgusting experiences with him while some of them were considered privileged. His son-in-law was awarded an arms deals in a tender board headed by General Fonseka himself. His speeches did not carry political messages; instead they carried death threats to his opponents.

There is information that during the campaign he was preparing for a bloody coupe against the Rajapaksha government. Hundreds of ex-army commandos were found in hotel rooms near the president’s residence. These are the signs of nothing, but a bloody dictator-in-waiting. Unfortunately, this is the man and his crew, the so called democratic West, chose as their candidate to run Sri Lanka for them. There are more information coming out, elaborating General Fonseka’s Idi Amin like characteristics. It seems General Fonseka is in the hot seat now. But will the democratic West save him? At the end of the election, he made an open request to his masters in the west, to save him. Was his request, a call was to invade Sri Lanka?