Sarath Fonseka’s recent interview in the Mirror does him no favors – A sorry excuse for a former battle hardened soldier

The tragedy of being a member of the Armed Forces all one’s life is that by the time one retires from it one is just nothing more than a cut and polished soldier without an ounce of intelligence or a mind of one’s own.

We have endured a few years of the super tactician who ruthlessly carried out the express mission given to him, to win at all costs and eliminate the enemy from the face of the ground in Sri Lanka. This he did with military precision and dedication.

His superiors knew, but once he performed he was NOT ready to be put out to pasture, and took on the outward manifestations of a man who thought he could win the peace. There is no one who questions, that it was he himself to blame for the debacle of the 2010 election and the subsequent over the top retaliation and revenge by the Govt. for the incendiary statements he made during the campaign.

The interview in question casts aspersions on the conditions he made for his release not being met. A wholly unnecessary comment, coming now, when he could have said it at the time of release, or immediately after the release when his conditions were not met. To blame the double crossing Tiran Alles now is just sour grapes after he deserted a fading bad dream.

The Interview    

Further on in the interview to question why Arjuna Ranatunge had not visited him in prison more often while being his deputy in Parliament is another croak of a has been looking for some meaning to his days in prison. Many who gave him the benefit of the doubt as a prisoner of conscience would surely rue the day they were foolish enough to believe he was anything more than he showed to the world.

I believe it is better for people who are at the top to know when to retire from their position, dignity intact, rather than fall from glory, fading into the sunset, more like a dried up old prune, with no one left to support their utterances, and even the reporter who covers the story, cannot even pretend to restore some elastoplasts on the self inflicted wound that is further infected knowingly and uncaringly.

The worst is over, or so we hope. There is no future in this soul. Those who slavishly found him to be an alternative source of conscience of the nation, have been badly let down, and the cast of characters who have had to bite the dust because of this creation are left to ponder what might have been. There is no alternative to the truth, and when one lies it always comes home to haunt.