Has General Fonseka fallen prey to the Blake-Ranil bait?
Posted on October 29th, 2009
Ajit Randeniya
There are signs that the Sri Lankan history is repeating itself. In 1815, the Kandyan chieftains handed over King Rajasinghe and the Kandyan kingdom to the British, barely a decade after the crushing defeat of the colonists attempt to invade Kandy. Now there are signs that General Sarath Fonseka has swallowed or about to walk in to a trap laid by the former US ambassador Robert Blake in connivance with that jelly-back, Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Blake is probably the second worst enemy of Sri Lanka after Eric Solheim. Blake lost face in Sri Lanka during the end phase of the war, despite the dedicated service of his agent Kumar Rupesinghe and he hasn`t forgotten. He resents President Rajapakse intensely.

The American neocon conspirators are aware of Mr Rajapakse`s long association with the Palestinian cause, a very good basis for hating him. During his tenure in Colombo Blake also got to know first hand that the President has a fiercely independent mind, a forthrightness rarely seen amongst developing country leaders. They also dislike President Rajapakse`s close friendships with countries such as Iran, Turkey, Libya and Vietnam who are facing persecution by the US. Such independent mindedness and foreign policy finesse of small country leaders are things they are not used to. They would dearly love to see the back of President Rajapakse, by hook or by crook.

Blake knew well that the perennial looser in Sri Lankan Politics, Ranil Wickremesinghe had as much chance of winning an election in Sri Lanka as a snow ball maintaining its integrity in hell. He had to find someone else. Rumours that General Fonseka would enter politics were designed as a campaign of destabilisation as well as to plant the seed of this crazy and dangerous idea in Fonseka`s head.

The long overdue recent revelation that General Fonseka `probably` intends to enter politics, while putting a `sort of` an end to speculation, also reveals a degree of naivety in Fonseka that was always beneath the surface. Especially so when you consider that he chose Washington as the venue to declare his intentions to enter politics in Sri Lanka. Perhaps Blake couldn`t wait!

There is no doubt that Sarath Fonseka played a major role as Army Commander in putting an end to the Tiger menace. While he was personally motivated due to the dastardly LTTE attack on his person, it needs to be acknowledged that he planned and managed the operations well. But none of these services or achievements make him a suitable candidate for Presidency. The possibility now is that he faces self-destruction (of his reputation) by going to bed with Ranil and Mangala. His approach so far suggests so.

Firstly, during his speech in the temple he exhibited a degree of pettiness in trying to claim all the glory of the victory for the Army, `the troops on the ground`, belittling the role of his counterparts at the Navy and Air Force. Then he said that more Prabhakarans might appear in the future unless proper measures were taken to `secure the hard won victory`. But this is the same person who caused international embarrassment to Sri Lanka during the war by claiming the whole of Sri Lanka for the Sinhalese, denying the Tamils` right to live in Sri Lanka. The surviving Tigers like Mano Ganeshan who harbour a unhealthy level of personal hatred towards him haven`t forgotten. He threatened to withdraw from the coalition.