General Sarath Fonseka resigned from the Sri Lankan Army on November 12, and in doing so, fuelled speculation that he intends to run for President at the next election.
Officially stepping down from his post on November 16, Fonseka said he would announce his decision on whether to enter politics soon.
“I gave my retirement papers,” Gen. Fonseka told the media at a Buddhist temple at Keliniya on the outskirts of
“I have been serving my country in the past and I will serve the country in future as well.”
Asked whether he would join politics, the General said: “I can’t comment as I am still in uniform. I will decide my future once my retirement comes into effect.”
Soon after signing the official document to quit as
"I expect to announce my future steps in two or three days. I will be serving the country in the future," he said.
“He is certainly entering politics. It is an irreversible process for him now," Sumanasiri Liyanage, a political science professor at the
“For the first time in 15 years, political developments have unfolded that threaten the dominance of
“Mr Rajapakse has until now faced little serious resistance from an opposition that has struggled to find ways of countering him. But this political hegemony has shown unprecedented cracks with the emergence of a new leader for opposition forces to rally around,” the paper commented.
Fonseka is widely credited to be one of the three players in defeating the LTTE, along with Mahinda Rajapakse, and Gotabaya Rajapakse, Ashok Mehta, a political analyst who once led the Indian peacekeeping forces in
If he decides to run for president, Fonseka could split Rajapakse’s voter base by giving voters another contender who also represents winning the war, said analysts.
The incumbent president had been expected to capitalise on the defeat of the LTTE and announce a quick poll.
At his Sri Lanka Freedom Party's annual convention, Rajapakse, said only that he would decide "in due course" after more than 100,000 party stalwarts urged him to call the presidential poll before the parliamentary elections due in April 2010.
Human rights activists have condemned the conduct of the last days of the war, alleging gross abuses of human rights and the commission of war crimes.
A US State Department report on possible war crimes in
Since the end of the war, the Sri Lankan government has been criticised by international community and human rights organisations for failing to resettle the hundreds of thousands of Tamils locked up in camps surrounded by barbed wire.
In Fonseka’s letter of resignation, which reads like an election manifesto, he adds his voice to the criticism.
“Your Excellency's government is yet to win the peace in spite of the fact that the Army under my leadership won the war,” he said. “There is no clear policy to ensure the security of the Tamil people thereby leaving room to ruin the victory attained, paving the way for yet another uprising in the future due to lack of security arrangements in the resettled areas.”
Rights activists reacted with disbelief.
"It is an irony of ironies that Fonseka is talking about human rights when he was our target of attack in the past," Nimalka Fernando, a human rights activist told the media.
Following the victory against the LTTE, Fonseka is rumoured to have clashed with the Rajapakse brother over who should take the credit for winning the war.
Since Fonseka’s resignation from of the office, many posters of Fonseka around
“Fonseka says politicians are taking credit for a war won by the soldiers while Rajapakse [and his brothers] say it is the Rajapakses that won the war,” opposition politician Wijedasa Rajapaksa (not related to the President), told the National.
“People now have realised who the real hero is … and that’s Fonseka”, he said.
It is not clear yet which party Fonseka may join in the presidential election, with some speculation of a three-way contest between incumbent President Mahinda Rajapakse, main opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and Sarath Fonseka.
Wickremesinghe was considering contesting as the UNP candidate while Fonseka could be a candidate from the opposition People’s Liberation Front (JVP), the National cited local newspaper reports as saying.
