Why Maithripala Sirisena hates SF

Do not be afraid; our fate cannot be taken from us; it is a gift. ~Dante Alighieri   

Presidency goes away beyond the holder’s personal likes and  dislikes. It goes beyond the holder’s fears and pleasures; its scope is  so large and extending beyond the personal boundaries of one’s  lamentable limitations, a not-so-sophisticated intellect (if he has any)  fails to embrace the immense responsibilities and demands that are  rested upon the office.   

As this writer has enunciated in his previous columns, the  fundamental function of the leader of the country is to protect and  defend its people.   

However, clever he thinks he is, when the weight of office  falls on him with immeasurable intensity, if he is not ready or equipped  to understand the nuanced attributes of the demands that he is expected  to confront and respond with poise and stoicism, he will be judged by  history, first as a miserable failure and then even as a traitor to the  office he was elected to.   

Politicians, unlike those bureaucrats who are appointed to  execute the policies and programs spelt out and prepared by them, more  often than not, tend to take the easy way out when the going gets rough  and tough.   

• The way forward should be the only focus of leaders of a country 
• Alleged pressure on Sirisena sourcing from the Rajapaksas might be unbearable for Sirisena  

Politicians by the very fact of impermanence of their being  in power, especially in a democratic republic, usually resort to clever  messaging of the facts; their rhetorical insinuations overtake the  plain and simple expression of the status quo as related to innumerable  crises their country faces on a daily basis; their immediate attention  is to the sustenance of their power and in order to solidify that power,  they apply all the skills they have accumulated over the years; whether  they are intellectually matched with the complex tasks that lie ahead,  they have proven to be perfectly matched in the deceptive techniques of  this enterprise called politics.   

When such characters seek high office in the country, and  when they are elected on the strength of the campaign and unusually  electric rhetoric they used during those campaigns, an inscrutable  phenomenon enters their minds; that inscrutable phenomenon begins to not  only shape and define their activities that follow, it acts as a shield  and armour against numerous attacks hurled at them by their opponents.  

Nevertheless, the path that these politicians choose to trek offers more rugged terrain than rosy meadows. The  natural obedience to greed and lust becomes the second part of their  very DNA and at the expense of the people who elected them to office,  they begin a macabre game of indulgence and luxurious living styles that  sometimes belittle those spent by old-rich millionaires and  billionaires. 

Law and Order Ministry is a double-edged knife; that is how  Sirisena perceives it. Fonseka will man that job and destroy not only  all forces that try to destroy our lives, but he might also go after the  Rajapaksas

This, in short, is what has happened to our current  Executive President. After being elected by the overwhelming majority of  United National Party (UNP) supporters and the Tamils and Muslims, this  politician has chosen to brandish his power in the most unethical; he  chose to betray his supporters and go to bed with his mortal enemies, so  to speak.   

Yet, when the name of real war hero, Sarath Fonseka came up for the post of Field Marshall, he did not hesitate to decorate Fonseka with this rare distinction.   

He saw it fit to make such a magnanimous gesture at the  time. But unfortunately for Sri Lanka and her people who were trying to  raise their heads above water after a brutal 30-year war, tragedy struck  again. On Easter Sunday of 2019, April 21, a well-coordinated and  shrewdly organized terror attack was hurled at the three  Christian/Catholic churches and three five-Star hotels, namely, Shangri  la, Kingsbury and Cinnamon Grand, and killed more than 300 men, women  and children and injured more than 700, the Executive President was on  furlough in Singapore with his family.   

His patriotism and love for the people of his motherland came apart at its seams.   

When it was revealed that the Executive was informed of an  impending attack of the nature of the Easter Sunday Massacre, the people  saw through this man’s utter inadequacy for the job he holds.   

Usually, at moments of crisis, most political leaders own  responsibility and pledge to go forward from then and thereon. Passing  the buck is not usually ascribed to great men. Maithripala Sirisena’s  deficiencies have been brought to light. What happened is now history. The way forward should be the only focus of leaders of a country. Harbouring old grudges is petty and belittling to the office they hold.   

You cannot handle the job of national security. You cannot  be trusted with the defence apparatus and its sophisticated demands.  Standing up and bowing their heads to you is not attributed to you  personally; national security professionals do that for the office you  hold. Misreading such bureaucratic obedience is a national crisis.  Please do not try to hide behind the constitutional clauses and hold on  to the Ministry of Defence. You still can be the Minister of Defence but  hand over national security to an elected politician who has proven  beyond any shadow of doubt or reservation, who can account for the  defence and protection of our people.   

Sarath Fonseka is a much-maligned man. His bravery and  undiluted courage was once the source of irritation and mistrust by  another regime which was headed by three brothers. The first among them  was the President, another was charged with the economy and the other  who fled the army he once served in and was in hiding in another greener  pasture. The brothers gathered their political and financial capital  thanks to their other brother’s Presidency.   

Credited with almost three fourths (75%) of the national  budget, these brothers are alleged to have ransacked the country’s  coffers to their will and whims. The guy who is being promoted for  Presidency in 2020, got one of his cronies to write a book and attribute  the success of the war effort to his own name. These empty vessels  began their symphony of self-aggrandizements soon after the guns fell  silent in the North and East.   

The natural obedience to greed and lust becomes the  second part of their very DNA and at the expense of the people who  elected them to office, they begin a macabre game of indulgence and  luxurious living styles that sometimes belittle those spent by old-rich  millionaires and billionaires 

Plutarch, named, upon becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius  Mestrius Plutarchus, was a Greek biographer and essayist, known  primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia, who is classified as a  Middle Platonist, said:  

“The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled”.   

The empty vessels, that were the Rajapaksa brothers, did  not understand the nuanced ways of thinking nor could they relate or  empathize with the ordinary shades of life and its idiosyncratic  elements. Instead of kindling their emptiness with wisdom and acumen,  they opted for the alluring magic of material luxury and ego-enhancing  flattery. But the horrendous felonies and misdeeds they are alleged  to have committed are now pursuing them like a hyena in scavenging  search of easy prey. 

While the Executive is being charged, rightly or wrongly,  with negligence of duty, Sarath Fonseka chose to wait in the shadows,  but no more. Field Marshall Sarath Fonseka could not wait any longer.  His remarks in the House of Parliament in the wake of the Easter Sunday  Massacre revealed the very character and traits of a fighter; of a man  who knows what national security is, what it demands of those who are  held responsible to protect and defend the land and her people.   

It is being speculated that the Islamic State of Iraq and  Syria (ISIS) is responsible for the Easter Sunday Massacre. ISIS is a  very sophisticated terror organization, perhaps second only to or on par  with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Elam (LTTE).   

Who else is more qualified and equipped to confront ISIS  than Sarath Fonseka, the one who destroyed Prabhakaran and his murderous  organization named LTTE.   

But Maithripala Sirisena does not see it that way. His anger, jealousy and pettiness have clouded his judgment.   

The Law and Order Ministry is a double-edged knife; that is  how Sirisena perceives it. Fonseka will man that job and destroy not  only all forces that try to destroy our lives, but he might also go  after the Rajapaksas with the same commitment to democracy and rule of  law and expose them, once and for all.   

The alleged pressure on Sirisena sourcing from the Rajapaksas might be unbearable for Sirisena. The man who beat and brought Prabhakaran to his knees is being held in limbo because he can do the job.   

But, it seems, placing the country before petty and  inconsequential likes and dislikes is a hard choice for our Executive.  It is indeed a tragedy beyond Shakespearian genre. One wonders whether  holding Sarath Fonseka away from the job of Law and Order is part of a  deal that involves nomination from the Pohottuwa. That would be even a  more unspeakable tragedy.   

The writer can be contacted at [email protected]