It is ironic that at the same time as the government-appointed
Commission on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation has begun its public
hearings, its reverse has taken the centre stage in the country. The
lessons of the past were ignored and reconciliation for the future
that embraces the entirety of the country suffered a major setback. A
military tribunal recommended that former Army Commander General
Sarath Fonseka be stripped of all his military ranks, honors and
pension. This recommendation was accepted by President Mahinda
Rajapaksa in his capacity of Commander-in-Chief of the Sri Lankan
military forces.
The recommendation of the military tribunal to give General Fonseka
such a severe punishment was on account of his involvement in politics
while he was in military uniform. This case has been political from
beginning to end and will no doubt continue to be dogged by politics.
Key witnesses whose evidence was used against him are high officials
in the government. The highly charged political environment, in which
General Fonseka was first arrested shortly after he contested the
Presidential Elections as the joint opposition candidate, and the
protests by the opposition following his arrest, have made the
political element predominate in this case.
There were many deficiencies in the military tribunal that General
Fonseka alleged. That large section of the population who see in him
a hero who played the key role in the defeat of the LTTE would
probably concur in this view. This included charges that the military
judges were all junior in rank to the General over whom they were
sitting in judgment, and that they themselves had been subjected to
military discipline during the tenure of General Fonseka as Army
Commander. His lawyers protested that the military tribunal continued
its hearings during the court vacation. General Fonseka had to appear
before his accusers without his lawyers on the last three occasions
before judgment was passed.
If there was an expectation that President Rajapaksa would utilize his
power of discretion to soften or waive the recommendation of the
military tribunal, it did not materialize. This would have been a
major disappointment to the large section of the population who have
viewed General Fonseka as a genuine hero. The military tribunal left
it to the President to make the final decision. This gave the
President an opportunity to be magnanimous. The benevolent ruler is
the ideal in Buddhist historiography. It is dear to the Sri Lankan
ethos. But this opportunity was not taken.
BROADER CANVASS
The Commission on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation has been required
to investigate events that took place during a given a restricted time
period. This has opened it to the criticism that its appointment is
political rather than what its name suggests. The terms of reference
of the Commission specify that it should investigate those events that
took place between 2002 when the Ceasefire Agreement came into being
and 2009 when the war finally came to its end. So far most of those
who have testified or been invited to testify before the Commission
have made critiques of the Ceasefire Agreement, the former government
that signed it, and the international community. Those who could
testify about what happened during the war have so far not made their
presence felt.
If national reconciliation is to be truly the goal it is necessary to
look at a broader canvass. Sri Lanka fell into the abyss of war not
only because of a conflict between its two largest ethnic communities,
but also because of repeated political failures. One of these was the
inability of successive leaders of the government and opposition to
forge a bipartisan consensus on the way to achieve national peace and
reconciliation. Time and again, political leaders in opposition found
ways to oppose what they themselves were prepared to propose while in
government.
There was also the deliberate subversion of democratic norms and
reneging on promises made. An example would be the coming to power of
the government of 1977. The leaders of that government promised to
convene an All Party Conference to resolve the ethnic conflict which
by that time had started to become militarized. But instead of giving
priority to dialogue and to consensus building, the leaders of that
government decided to further weaken the opposition. The manner in
which the all powerful government of President J R Jayewardene which
had a 5/6 majority in Parliament treated the defeated opposition led
by former Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranaike paved the way for
national disasters that were to follow.
History will note that the decision of the government of President
Jayewardene to strip Mrs Bandaranaike of her civic rights for alleged
abuse of power during her tenure as Prime Minister set the country on
a path of political polarization that made the ethnic conflict even
worse. As it is today, the masses of people at that time, and opinion
leaders too, were shocked and awed by the seemingly unlimited powers
of that government. The government grew bolder in its impunity. The
removal of Mrs Bandaranaike’s civic rights was followed by the
infamous referendum of 1981. It deprived the country of general
elections for five years. The anti Tamil riots of 1983 and JVP
insurrection of 1988 cannot be dissociated from the earlier acts of
impunity.
CHECKING IMPUNITY
Today, Sarath Fonseka who innovated new military strategies and led
the Sri Lanka army to victory over the LTTE is behind bars. He faces
more military tribunals and civil courts. This one has stripped him
of his military rank, honours and pension that came from a 40 year
career as a soldier. The other cases to come can strip him like an
onion, layer by layer, of all that is his, including his property, his
status as an MP and his freedom. Perhaps the government leaders
believe that he would have done the same to them had he won, or should
he ever win, the Presidential election. This may justify in their
minds the need for total punishment.
During the Presidential election campaign, when it seemed that General
Fonseka might even win the election, he too made several rash and
crude assertions about what he would inflict upon his former
governmental partners in winning the war who were now his political
opponents. And so, it seems to have become a fight to the finish in
the manner of a war. The way in which the government broke up the JVP
demonstration in the city of Galle to protest against General
Fonseka’s continued detention and the selective arrest of JVP
Parliamentarians reportedly on orders from above is are signs that
compromise is not in the offing.
It is often fear that causes people to do terrible things to one
another, even when those things they do can come round to boomerang on
them and be ultimately self-destructive. A civilized society, with
its reservoirs of lessons learnt and its keepers of cultural
traditions cannot let this happen. The DNA of which General Fonseka
is the leader has announced that they will be appealing the court
martial verdict in the Court of Appeal. Politics in this era of
democracy is not about fighting to a finish. It is not a war against
terrorism where any cost is counted as worth the price of total
annihilation of the enemy. In democratic politics the desire to win
and retain power has to be within a framework of checks and balances
in which democratic norms are respected and upheld.
When it appointed the Commission on Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation,
the government was making an effort to address local and international
concerns about the human rights situation and fend off a possible
international inquiry. In its statement regarding the appointment of
this Commission the government stated it will seek to take the Sri
Lankan nation towards the common goals of a multi-ethnic polity, in a
spirit of cooperation, partnership and friendship, learning the
lessons from recent history to ensure that there will be no recurrence
of such tragic conflict in the future. The mandate of the Commission
must not become a thing apart, but must be seen reflected in the
conduct of the government as it governs Sri Lanka at this time.