When President Mahinda Rajapaksa came to Parliament on May 19 last year to formally announce the final defeat of the LTTE, among the few people he named for working “tirelessly to give this war victory to the motherland” was the then Army Commander Sarath Fonseka.
Both government and opposition legislators applauded loudly as the President thanked General Fonseka, the other armed forces commanders, the IGP and the Defence Secretary. But last week in Parliament the very government MPs who hailed Gen. Fonseka as a hero were falling over each other to level charges of corruption against him.
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| Bimal Ratnayake |
Wimal Weerawansa |
The occasion was the debate on the extension of the emergency when parliament met first time for the New Year. Four prominent government members had come prepared, files in hand, not to discuss the emergency regulations but to level corruption charges against Gen. Fonseka, President Rajapaksa’s main rival and the opposition’s common candidate at the January 26 presidential poll.
They accused him of sitting on tender boards, while serving as Commander, and approving contracts to buy military supplies from a company allegedly owned by his son-in-law Danuna Tilakaratna.
The government onslaught was led by Ministers Nimal Siripala de Silva, Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Rajitha Senaratna and National Freedom Front leader Wimal Weerawansa. They brought documents to the House claiming they were proof to show that a company owned by the son-in-law of Gen. Fonseka had been awarded weapons contracts in violation of government tender procedure.
“The Opposition goes all over the country alleging that President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his brothers are involved in corruption. I challenge them to show any documentary evidence to prove these claims,” Mr. Aluthgamage said.
Backing him, Mr. Weerawansa came down particularly hard on members of his former party, the JVP, for defending who he called a corrupt person. “They are portraying themselves as incorruptible politicians but today they are defending a corrupt man,” he charged.
It fell on the shoulders of the JVP’s Kurunegala district parliamentarian Bimal Ratnayaka to defend Gen. Fonseka. Dismissing the allegations as false, he said, “There is no connection between the companies that belong to General Fonseka’s son-in-law and the company by the same name in Sri Lanka. “That company has not even exported an eraser to Sri Lanka,” he claimed.
UNP Badulla district Parliamentarian Lakshman Seneviratne asked government MPs why these allegations could not have been made public earlier and were coming out only after Gen.Fonseka emerged as the front runner in the presidential election.
“Before the end of the war he was patriotic. Now he has become a traitor. The government thought the presidential race was a one-sided match which it could win easily but realizing that the tide is now turning, it is coming out with bogus allegations against General Fonseka,” he said.
Unfortunately for the opposition, there were not enough legislators from the UNP in particular to speak in defence of the common presidential candidate it supports. At most times there were empty seats on the opposition side while government members repeated the barrage of allegations against Fonseka.
The Fonseka-bashing-and-Fonseka-defending emergency debate was passed with the UNP and the JVP abstaining and the TNA voting against. It was announced that parliament will meet again on February 5, but it depends on the outcome of the January 26 presidential election. |
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