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Sunday, 10 January 2010

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Traitors and opportunists

People have betrayed countries and nations from time immemorial. Over the years many opportunists had turned traitors, caring two hoots for their motherland.

Sri Lanka is no exception. From ancient times there were such characters who had betrayed their country for petty gains. Even during the British rule, from 1815 to 1948, there had been several instances where the country had been betrayed to gain positions, power and wealth from the British rulers.

Whatever time or period, these traitors had acted in this manner due to their lust for power or personal benefits. The latest in that list is Sarath Fonseka.

During his last visit to the United States, he agreed to give evidence before US Homeland security officials against Sri Lanka on fabricated charges of war crimes, so that he could convert his Green Card to American citizenship. As a Government official in military service at the time, the Sri Lankan Government secured his immediate return without such questioning before the US authorities.

Having retired from service and securing the Presidential Election candidacy from the virtually unknown New Democratic Front (NDF), Fonseka was involved in one of the greatest betrayals by making a controversial statement to the Sunday Leader. He became the greatest betrayer of all time when he openly said it was Defence Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa who ordered the then Brigade Commander of the 58 Division, Brigadier (now Major General) Shavendra Silva to shoot the LTTE leaders who attempted to surrender waving white flags.

This not only put the lives of Major General Silva and soldiers of the 58 Division at risk, but also influenced the US and UN to level charges against Sri Lanka on alleged war crimes.

Fonseka is playing part two of his Greatest Betrayal by teaming up with opportunistic Opposition parties and extremist elements to cause dissension in the country, having won the support of the UNP and bankrupt Opposition politicians such as Mangala Samaraweera, Rauf Hakeem and Mano Ganeshan, who made numerous attempts to stop the humanitarian operations of the Security Forces.

Fonseka has now embraced the pro-LTTE Tamil National Alliance (TNA). It is needless to dwell on the type of politics that the TNA indulges in. It is a public secret that the TNA had been a Tiger proxy and attempted to give the last drop of oxygen to the tottering LTTE leadership. Along with the UNP, the TNA leaders went on many world jaunts to woo Western support and pressurise the Government to halt the battle against LTTE terror.

And now, a shameless Fonseka has joined hands with Sampanthan and his Tiger-proxy TNA to woo voters in the North and the East. The TNA will not support Fonseka for nothing. The TNA, in return, has put forward many conditions, which are extremely detrimental to Sri Lanka's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Before lending support to Fonseka, the TNA leadership put the same conditions to UPFA candidate, President Mahinda Rajapaksa. But the President was not willing to compromise the country's sovereignty and the hard-earned victories of Sri Lanka's valiant Security Forces for the sake of retaining power. In other words, the President flatly rejected the TNA's proposal to exchange TNA votes with the larger interests of the country and that of our Security Forces.

In contrast, Fonseka's sole aim is to become President at any cost. Ideologically, he is not the same person who commanded the Army. The 'new Fonseka' is a man after power and is willing to sacrifice anything and everything to achieve that goal.

Hence, there was no difficulty for Fonseka to agree to whatever conditions put forward by the TNA, even before the Tiger proxies had made the proposals. Unlike President Rajapaksa, Fonseka did not understand the gravity of the TNA conditions. Even if Fonseka had realised the repercussions of the TNA proposals, he was not in the least bothered as his aim is to become the President by hook or by crook.

If President Rajapaksa was willing to undermine the magnificent victories of the Security Forces, he too could have secured the TNA's support for perhaps half the number of those conditions. But the President will never resort to such pacts even in his wildest dreams.

It would be interesting to ascertain the details of the TNA conditions which Fonseka has wholeheartedly agreed to. According to TNA Parliamentarian K. Thurairetnasingam, Fonseka has agreed to comply with all TNA conditions and has even signed an agreement on these issues. The TNA MP has said that they will never deviate from their policy of "establishing an autonomous regime for the Tamil-speaking people".

It is no secret that the TNA-LTTE diaspora-Sarath Fonseka collusion has many facets which are extremely harmful to Sri Lanka's sovereignty and national security. Through the clandestine agreement with the TNA, Fonseka will not only undermine the historic military victory achieved by the heroic Security Forces, but would also nullify the supreme sacrifices made by around 26,000 troops and another 30,000 disabled soldiers. Evidently, through the first condition, Fonseka and the UNP have virtually agreed to release all hardcore terrorist leaders. Fonseka, the NDF Presidential candidate, has also given his consent to reduce Army intelligence and relocate Army camps which are at strategic places in the North and the East. He has also agreed to do away with the High Security Zones in Jaffna, reduce the military strength in the peninsula and resettle Tamil civilians in proximity to those camps, as "ordered" by the TNA.

To cap it all, Fonseka has also given a guarantee to merge the Northern and Eastern Provinces. It would be interesting to note what the JVP, a partner of the Fonseka alliance with the UNP, TNA, SLMC and LTTE diaspora has got to say on this crucial issue as it was the JVP which secured a court ruling to de-merge the two provinces. The masses are too intelligent to be swayed and are closely monitoring the latest developments.

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