Lankaweb Editorial

With Election day fast approaching the case against Retd.Gen.Sarath Fonseka’s entitlement to legitimacy as far as his candidature goes seems to be gaining momentum towards his disqualification and the man seems to have disentitled himself from every conceivable perspective to legitimately run for the highest office in addition to inviting a whole lot of unwelcome attention to his modus operandi as well as his two faced mentality in the eyes of many who are fast becoming aware that he does post dubious tendencies in much of his manouvering alongside the capacity to be a braggart about his acheivements in the war against the Tamil Tigers which most definitely was not a singlehanded accomplishment with him at the helm of the charge but a concerted combined effort by all the armed forces with President Rajapaksha and his brother Gotabhaya leading it. Gen. Fonseka was a mere hired hand with good military savvy and tactics whose input and actions proved valuable to Sri Lanka’s war effort which now however hangs in the balance with a touch of Machiavellian insubordination in post LTTE Sri Lanka.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ There is also the allegation with suggested documented evidence that one of his son’s in law domiciled in the US was a supplier of war material on a contractual basis approved and handled by the retd. Gen. where the entire operation reeks of conflict of interest and fair sized amounts of financial profits appear to have been the order of the day benefitting those it did in obvious perspective!This alone if proven would be sufficient to disqualify the man based on an open sincerity which seems to have been shelved and a wheeler dealer type mentality then surfaces which would be coinable with his presidential bid also!

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ It is fast becoming painfully apparent that Retd. Gen. Fonseka is now overplaying his hand substantially and the mandate granted by his Chief Executive Officer the President of Sri Lanka being totally misinterpreted, misrepresented, misused and disrespected in how Fonseka has decided to turn against his former boss indicative of not only all of these mentioned aberrations but perhaps also insubordination as well as ingratitude shown by the manner he is now conducting himself as Sri Lanka’s would be saviour~ from what may it be asked other than his own sales pitch of lies, innuendo and exaggerated concoctions to discredit the President with all the backing of the rogues brigade of the UNF in the manner of a village idiot alongside the greater idiocy of his new found mentor Ranil Wickremasinghe rather than in keeping with the dignities he once commanded as a military leader.

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ So does the Nation of Sri Lanka really want such an individual at its helm towards a better future? It is hoped certainly not ! as in addition to handing the reins of power to such a duplicitous individual (in a worst case scenario that is) it would also pave the way for all the hyenas in the opposition to gain an administrative foothold which could end up in chaos and easily send the Nation of Sri Lanka into a tailspin after the great effort by President Rajapaksha to restore and recussitate the country after decades of terrorism and is the very objective the voter at the Presidential Election must be aware of towards selecting the right candidate!

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Alarmingly, based upon all the evidence presented Retd.Gen. Fonseka has all the makings of a power hungry bungler going about his ambits all wrong and leaving huge transparencies about himself in the process visible to all those discerning who perceive them in true light by simply offsetting them against his own words and actions so full of fallibilities and incongruencies where his duplicitous and two faced approach towards what he conceives as an attempt to topple the incumbent President will surely backfire on him. Pathetically for him, his ammunition seems somewhat derelict, lopsided and perhaps even defunct relative to the direction in which President Rajapaksha is guiding the Nation unfazed by the barrage of innuendo and false portrayals of facts relative to the war against the LTTE where Fonseka will probably have much to answer for once the dust of the Presidential Election has settled.

Very interestingly from a legal as well as constitutional standpoint according to some legal analysts the retired General Fonseka has no entitlement to even present his candidature for the presidency being an aspiring citizen of the United States of America, and hence according to a recent legal petition presented in the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka he should be disqualified from contesting for the office of the President under the Provisions of the Constitution of Sri Lanka which of course may or may not hold good until the final verdict and only the eventual outcome of the petition will tell but it could also mean curtains for the Fonseka Presidential bid!

ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The nature of the petition filed by a prominent Sri Lankan Attorney as well as presiential candidate. (of no relevance to the objective of proving the inadequacies of Retd. Gen. Fonseka which appear etched in stone!)

The Petition points out that Retd. Gen. Fonseka had pledged his allegiance to the USA, by obtaining permanent residence rights in USA( Green Card) and in so doing is categorically not a citizen of Sri Lanka according to the meaning of Article 31(1) of the Constitution of Sri Lanka.

The petition said that to be eligible for a green card issued by the US migration authorities, the applicant must, in the first instance, make an application to emigrate from Sri Lanka and to seek US citizenship. The green card gives the holder permanent residence rights in USA, which was a prelude to the obtaining of full US citizenship. A green card holder was bound by the US laws.

The petition held that Fonseka was not a citizen of Sri Lanka for the purpose of eligibility to contest the office of President.

Fonseka curiously on nomination day had not registered any protest or objection, when the petitioner objected to his nomination on the grounds that he was not a citizen of Sri Lanka and that he was a citizen of the USA.

Fonseka has strong links to the USA. His daughters were American citizens. One was married to an American citizen of Sri Lankan origin, the petition said.

The petition, in paragraph 38, said that if not for the timely intervention of the government of Sri Lanka, General Fonseka would have in November, 2009 in keeping with his legal obligations to the USA Government, divulged highly sensitive official secrets to the US Department of Home Security despite his being Chief of Defence Staff in Sri Lanka. That was a clear indication of conflicting interests, which threatened the security and integrity of Sri Lanka.

The petition also said that the acceptance of nomination of General Fonseka by the Commissioner of Elections had led to a violation of the right to equality of the petitioner, a rival candidate at the forthcoming presidential polls.

The petition requested Court to disqualify the nomination of Fonseka and declare that he was disqualified from being elected as President of Sri Lanka in the event of Fonseka being elected, to declare null and void his election and to elect the runner-up as the president.

While this petition may or may not be the final deciding factor towards Fonseka’s disentitlement there appears to be a plethora of circumstantial evidence pointing to his total ineligibility where at a times belligerent and bull in a chinashop mentality towards acheiving his goals and a very dictatorial attitude often in autocratic dispensation which is at times also visible in his campaign rhetoric and appears to have already decided his fate in convincing a greater majority of Sri lankans based upon the current mood in the country that this is no worth successor to President Rajapaksha and that he will most certainly be an also ran!