General Fonseka – Be happy about the number of votes you received
Posted on January 28th, 2010
Orpheus Perera
Ex. General Fonseka should have listen to me(my letter dated 30th of November 2009 titled Re. General Sarath Fonseka)
The results of the Presidential election is more in favour of SF, than unbiased people would have expected. He came to politics overnight, with one foot in America and the other in Sri Lanka. SF received the Chronic UNP votes, the people who will not change the party even if a UNP leader promise to divide the country into pieces and sell over to foreigners or fill the country with drugs.
Remarkably, he got less than what Ranil would have got even SF is a better leader than Ranil. Also he was rejected by majority of the people of his own home town and a former UNP strong hold, held by Dr. Sadda Tissa for many years.
It is curious to know why the Tamil speaking community(including Muslims) voted in favour of SF, who was a general of an Army which Tamils used to blame since 1960 s of harassing the people in Valvitithurai(without the consent of the respective Governments). In front of Sinhalese people SF claimed that he won the war against LTTE Terrorist and not the government(I think war heroes are the soldiers who put their lives on line).
Sararth, donƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢t try to mess up now! You told the foreign media
ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-the vote was riggedƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚, and has promised to launch a legal challenge to the outcome of the ballot.
The BBC report has two statements contradicting each other. SF has said that he was uncomfortable because 100s of soldiers were around the hotel. Then again he says now his life is at stake, after the soldiers were removed.
I think this was the most peaceful and fair election ever held in Sri Lanka. I can remember, as a small child it was scary to go out during the lection periods, I have witnessed and heard of lots of violence even on the election days. I can also remember my farther saying, during the times of State Councils(Sri Lanka under British Raj), UNP candidate S. W. R. D BandaranayakeƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢s supporters offered free transport to groups of LSSP voters walking to Polling Booths(which were far away from their homes). Then they were taken to farther remote areas and dump them and by the time they walk to the palling booths, the booths were closed and election was over. These incidents took place at the last day of the election and they were unchallenged during the British rulers.
Note: BBC news providers in Sri Lanka and the Sunday Leader please copy this
January 29th, 2010 at 7:56 am
Yes, the General should be happy he got the number of votes he did. He has no political background worth talking about, a disadvantage that was compounded by him being supported by the likes of the UNP headed by Ranil Wickremasinghe, a serial loser, the JVP and the TNA. Add to that, the General’s campaign was for the most part, a disaster. Instead of crying foul and carrying on like a sore loser the General should take heart with what he managed to achieve and think about how he can do better the next time.
His ill concealed ego and ambition and the flattery of those around him probably gave the General an exaggerated opinion of himself. And I think it is time that the General had a Reality Check and snap out the fantasy land in which he has found himself in recent months. Sri Lankans are decent and fair people and readily acknowledge the role the General played in defeating the Tigers. By the same token, the people will not have taken kindly to what the General is reported to told the Sunday Leader, as reported in that newspaper’s issue of 13th December. The people also have the good sense to appreciate that the credit for defeating the Tigers is not due to the General alone – as he would have us believe – but to the combined services and President Mahinda Rajapakse whose administration, among other things, provided the wherewithal to fight the war, obtained international assistance in various ways from countries within the region and beyond. And the nation will not forget how President Rajapakse stood firm when powerful nations like the UK and France brought pressure to call a halt to the war. He was unwavering in his determination to see the war to a conclusion. For these things the nation is grateful to President Rajapakse.
The Rajapakse administration, for all that, is not universally popular. And the General should appreciate that some of the votes that he received were in fact not cast FOR him but were votes cast AGAINST the government.
Defeat is not easy to accept, and perhaps, soldiers are trained not to ever contemplate not winning. But in political contests one of the parties has to lose but that does not spell the end of the world. Life goes on. So, the General will do well, even at this stage to graciously accept the verdict of the electorate, and move on. The rest of the world certainly will.