{"id":42552,"date":"2015-03-22T23:19:51","date_gmt":"2015-03-23T05:19:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=42552"},"modified":"2015-03-22T15:51:30","modified_gmt":"2015-03-22T22:51:30","slug":"demystifying-field-martial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/03\/22\/demystifying-field-martial\/","title":{"rendered":"Demystifying Field Martial"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr. Chandana Jayalath<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

As a former Captain of the Sri Lankan Army, I am happy to make a note, add my concerns and share my knowhow on the issue of decorating General Sarath Fonseka in the rank of Field Martial. I hope, it will demystify a couple of arguments surrounding the media nowadays. First, did Fonseka defeat the LTTE all by himself, i.e. without the support of the Navy and the Air Force and therefore why other two forces commanders are not treated in the same way? Second, can a small Army like Sri Lanka have Field Martials? Third, what did General Fonseka do to receive such an honour after he came out of the Army? Forth, Can Field Martial be awarded in an Army having the strength of less than one million?<\/p>\n

At the outset, Field Marshal is not a political appointment. It is conferred upon a General in not just appreciating of the duties or the overall military career. There are enough laurels to meet this objective.\u00a0 Field Martial is exclusive and it has no quota in the strength- minimum number of soldiers to command. There is no universal stereo type formula to decide the placements for top rankings, even General. It depends on many factors; locational, strategical, offensive and so forth.<\/p>\n

It is a conferment by the Head of State. It is conferred for the distinguished role of strategician, masterpiece and architect of a winning war. \u00a0Therefore, it is not a promotion. \u00a0Historically in many countries, extraordinary military achievement was required by a General in a wartime victory. As such, there can be only one military strategician at the end of any war where two other forces namely Navy and Air Force are providing support in their technological specialisms. Air Force primarily conducts aerial warfare whereas Navy is principally designated for naval battles. It does not in any way mean that the contribution of these two forces is less important to that of Army. Every one\u2019s contribution more or less rendered overall victory and it must not be misunderstood that the said Forces were ill-treated. Their contribution is priceless. However, not to bewilder, that 30 years of war is none other than a hideous and horrific army war.<\/p>\n

General Fonseka led the war against the LTTE and militarily defeated it. He deserved credit to his service. When Fonseka was stripped of his title, all promotions were immediately put on hold. If that freeze is being removed to benefit Fonseka, it is argued in certain quarters, then the promotion of others in the Navy and Air Force also should be considered. I find this argument is ill founded in military terms. However, those well versed in military affairs observe that rewarding a military person for services while in politics would set a very bad precedent. My key concern is none other than the active or passive political involvement while in the dress of Field Martial. Therefore, I suggest the General Fonseka must keep this in mind at all times.<\/p>\n

Field Marshals hold their rank for life, and are considered to be serving officers until their death. A Field Marshal wears full uniform on all official occasions and runs an office in Army headquarters. He also has a dedicated secretariat of his own. Future will decide how it works or fails.<\/p>\n

I found in some articles that India and China two of the largest armies of the world still does not have a Field Marshal. This is grossly a misnomer and a fabrication. India had two Field Martials namely,\u00a0 Sam Manekshaw in 1973 and K. M. Cariappa in 1983. \u00a0Sam the Brave”, was an Indian military leader who was the first Indian Army officer to be promoted to the rank of Field Marshal. His distinguished military career spanned four decades and five wars, beginning with service in the British Indian Army in World War II. \u00a0Kipper Madappa Cariappa was the first Indian Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army and led the Indian forces on the Western Front during the Indo-Pakistan War of 1947. His distinguished military career spanned almost three decades, at the highest point of which, he was appointed as the Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Military in 1949. I find there are 16 Field Martials in China.<\/p>\n

Lest we forgot, Gen Sarath Fonseka, the front line commander from 1984 who during the phoney peace of 2002\/5 refused to hand over the HSZs in Jaffna despite severe political and international pressure, stuck his neck out as Army Commander in 2006 and said that he would defeat the terrorists, classified as the most dangerous in the world, so that his successor would not have to fight them. He kept his promise but in doing so was very nearly killed by a suicide bomber, the only army commander who was so attacked. It is probable that if President Rajapakse had any other Army Commander that the terrorists would not have been defeated. I come to this conclusion on my own experience with many other senior rankers Army had at the most critical times. We should not forget that one time it was named as Corporals\u2019 war where the entire fate of the nation was given to a Lance Corporal, the junior most ranker in the Army, at the front with 30 bullets and 2 grenades lying over forward defence locality. However, if Gen Fonseka had to serve under a different C in C it is just as unlikely that he would have succeeded in his mission. Both of them were indispensable to the unique winning combination.<\/p>\n

I have seen the effects of war on people from bayonet, bullet, mine, shell, mortar, rocket and bombing including carpet bombing of cities. I have seen the survivors of bomb attacks in Colombo and suburbs, the orphans and the widows, throughout my best time of the life. War is horrible. But as for politics, it is far, far worse. However politics not only washed away General Fonseka\u2019s decorations. This is the ugly side of the politics.<\/p>\n

In addition to a two and a half year jail sentence, his military ranks were stripped off, his name taken away from the army registry and finally he lost his civic rights. Fonseka\u2019s Democratic Party started off well, but his military-type attitude towards the co-members and the rank and file of the party has resulted in many members leaving the party, including Arjuna Ranatunga. This gives the message that \u2018serious\u2019 characters have no survival in local political waters which is turbulent most of the times.<\/p>\n

During his career, General Fonseka was involved in the operations Balawegaya and Jayasikuru, which led to the capture of the Elephant Pass and Mankulam. The 6th Battalion of his Sri Lanka Sinha Regiment, which was under siege at Elephant Pass in 1991, repulsed the LTTE attack with reinforcements. He served as Deputy General Officer Commanding during Riviresa, the capture of Jaffna from the Tamil Tigers in December 1995. Later, troops commanded by Fonseka offered stiff resistance to Tamil Tigers in 2000 following the Fall of Elephant Pass, ultimately having to flee since they were unable to withstand the attack. I am not stating how Air Force were operating at that stage, as it will reveal ugly side of so called cooperation of the support armies. Fonseka was wounded in 1993 in the Yaldevi operation. In 1993, the Jaffna Fort was under siege by Tamil Tiger rebels. Then Colonel Fonseka led troops in the Midnight Express operation to relieve the besieged position. Several hundred soldiers were saved due to the operation.<\/p>\n

His awards and decorations included the Gallantry Medals; Rana Wickrama Padakkama (RWP), Rana Sura Padakkama (RSP), distinguished service medals; Vishista Seva Vibhushanaya (VSV), Uttama Seva Padakkama (USP) and other notable medal campaign medals; Riviresa Campaign Services Medal, Purna Bhumi Padakkama, North and East Operations Medal, Desha Putra Sammanaya and several others. Under circumstances, it is appropriate to give him the ranking in recognition of his commitment to defeat the LTTE.<\/p>\n

I find there are 14 Generals in the Army starting from General Deshamanya Sepala Attygalle to General Jagath Jayasuriya. Among them, General Fonseka is a clear delineation. \u00a0I wish, decorating General Sarath Fonseka with the rank of Field Martial should not be an issue for the civilians and politician, both.\u00a0 It is purely a military matter. However, adulterating any good thing with politics is catastrophic. If the eye does not want to see, neither light nor glasses will help.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Chandana Jayalath As a former Captain of the Sri Lankan Army, I am happy to make a note, add my concerns and share my knowhow on the issue of decorating General Sarath Fonseka in the rank of Field Martial. I hope, it will demystify a couple of arguments surrounding the media nowadays. First, did […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42552\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}