Insight By Sunil Kumar

December5th 2009
He sits languidly in the safety of a commando guarded office in a plush Colombo suburb dreaming of his aspirations to become President! He has all the vestiges of a weary, drained out, somewhat befuddled individual now that he no longer wears the uniform of a decorated military leader although his military instincts probably still remain as an indomitable spirit for all the wrong reasons.

The subject under review here is none other than General (retd) Sarath Fonseka perhaps the biggest dreamer alive in Sri Lanka today! deluding himself that he will be the overall winner in the next Sri Lankan presidential elections of 2010, a dream which will never come true for a few simple reasons as outlined below.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Firstly his champions pitting him against incumbent Sri Lankan President the charismatic Mahinda Rajapaksha calling itself the multi-party opposition coalition also known as the United National Front which has endorsed him as its candidate have little or no mandate from the masses of voters who know how rotten the inner core of the UNF really is and have not forgotten the wrongdoings of the UNP led by Ranil Wickremasinghe which almost betrayed the nation into the hands of her terrorist enemies!

Secondly, in the eyes of the majority voting public these too are enemies of the State plotting to overthrow a good, just and pragmatic leader that Mahinda Rajapaksha is, merely to seize power and it is the same greed for power which motivates the likes of Sarath Fonseks whose ambitions will come a cropper at the next Presidential Elections.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ In the overall picture, sadly the once good general has now been transformed into a power hungry monster according to many analysts and is being misled by his allies in the opposition camp and despite his better instincts which probably are already flashing warning lights in his head that it would be to his great detriment to attempt to lock horns with the giant that President Rajapaksha is in Sri Lanka . However, his alter ego which seems egregiously distorted to the point of confusion and selfishly motivated drives him on to what eventually will be his complete demise and shatter his confidences after the final vote has been counted and would probably rue the day he chose to run for the Presidency. His open verbosity to the media that he would even accept support from even the pro LTTE elements says it all that he preaches a false democracy from a pulpit which screams out his dictatorial mentality not without a touch of desperation which he has displayed throught his entire career and another reason to doubt the man’s credibility and his darker side which appears to be one which would stop at nothing which in fact becomes accentuated as NOTHING BEYOND HIS OWN AMBITS which he has broadcast of his own volition to the many discerning political analysts who have now concluded that this is a dangerous individual whose every move needs to be monitored! Case in point for the Administration perhaps to note!!

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Consequently all his accomplishments and merits gained as one of the the liberators of Sri Lanka will wane to the point where the people of Sri Lanka will look at him with contempt and disgust that here is a man whose honor and nobility which once reigned supreme in the eyes of the Nation is now compromising it all with the rather self destructive decision he has made despite all the rhetoric emanating from his camp that his intentions for Sri Lanka are noble when they are not.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ This is merely another aspiring dictator whose ambits the dimwitted leaders of the UNF particularly Ranil Wickremasinghe fail to perceive as in the end they too would have become worthless pawns in their dirty game of politics very deservedly in all probabilities where there can only be a single winner, none other than President Mahinda Rajapaksha who has proved his net worth to the Nation in no uncertain terms and surely has more than two thirds of the Sinhala Nation as well as the minority groups who adulate him despite all his critics and the end result points to a tumultuous victory for him which would add to his already earned laurels!

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The singlemost error Fonseka has made is colluding with the opposition parties whose track record alone has proved themselves unworthy of administering Sri Lanka relative to any better comparisons with the present Administration and having made his dubious choice is probably going to pay the price for it by ending up in oblivion as well as portraying himself in very poor light as a decision maker in the aftermath of the LTTE demise where he seems to have let things go to his head that he has a mandate towards power which seems to be the furthest from the truth and something he will find out rather painfully towards his bloated ego a mere pipe dream!

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ A nation such as Sri Lanka will never be subjugated by any dictator or autocrat which Fonseka has all the makings of despite his opposition allies’ failure to perceive this and in the turbulent nature of Sri Lankan politics someone like Fonseka could easily be buried under the debris of his own indecision to throw in his lot with the right forces, the ones which gave him all his credibility and status which he is now trying to ursup with little chance of success!

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Many discerning Sri Lankans now seem to think this worth entitling ” the Sarath Fonseka Syndrome.”