Agitation over SF arrest: potent weapon or damp squib?

By now it’s sufficiently clear that there was an exchange of words between the military team that arrested general Sarath Fonseka last Monday, the general himself, and the political leaders who were present at that time at the general’s office close to Royal College.
However, it appears that there is also the usual political capital being made out of the manner of arrest.
Apparently the general resisted arrest on the grounds of the fact that he is now a civilian, and that only the police could legally arrest him. When he was further told that the police are downstairs, he nevertheless continued to resist arrest saying that the police should come upstairs if they wanted.

Assault involved

At that time, general Manawadu who is also the officer who led the siege against the general’s men at Cinnamon Lakeside on the night of the Presidential election, asked his men to “grab the general by his neck and arrest him.’’
Undoubtedly some force was used, though the degree of force being said to have been used is not clear, even though the opposition political leaders contend that there has been assault involved.
Circumstances of arrest notwithstanding, the general is now under arrest, and it is clear that particularly the JVP has made the arrest the focal point of political agitation to build a people’s movement that would line-up opposition forces at the forthcoming general elections.
This is also to be expected as the opposition is weak and demoralised after the recent defeat at the presidential polls.
It is not so much the general but more so his weeping wife who now gives the opposition a focal point of agitation based upon the broad plank of suppression of democracy and curtailment of political rights.
At week’s end it is rumoured that Anoma Fonseka is to be the central figure in a political alliance that the JVP hopes to launch, combining opposition forces at the forthcoming national polls.
The government on the other hand seems to want to carry on as if nothing has happened, and to this end, the formal interview process for nominations of UPFA candidates for the forthcoming election, underlined the fact that the UPFA at least publicly, is working unperturbed according to prepared script, despite the fact that the opposition feels that the nature of the drama has changed after the General was placed under arrest.
Certainly there has been a clear post election authoritarian streak on the part of the government, which has been portrayed by the opposition as a case that is signified by the “three bereft women.’’
The three bereft women are the wives of Pradeed Ekneligoda, Chandana Srimalwatta and Sarath Fonseka.
Ekneligoda is the Lanka-e-news scribe who is missing since before the presidential elections, Sirimalwatte is the editor of the pro JVP Lanka newspaper now detained by CID, and of course Anoma Fonseka is the wife of Sarath Fonseka, the now arrested and detained general.
Mrs. Fonseka has been besieged by foreign media, and her tearful countenance last week which was splashed all over the media and global web-media this week, has given the opposition a ready to use image for its campaign against a government, which goes on the lines of a people’s movement against an authoritarian regime a la the Burmese junta for instance.
Now it must be cautioned that though this may be the opposition’s modus operandi to exploit the events of last week to the point that it has the makings of a spontaneous peoples revolt, the government may think that this is a damp squib campaign that would fizzle out, much like the general’s now damp squib candidacy for the presidency that petered out in an anti climax with the presidential poll results.

Arrest look legitimate

However, it must be said that the agitation that is aimed at the government against the Fonseka arrest seems to be as strong as the government’s efforts aimed at making the arrest look legitimate, and in the interests of national security.
So even as Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa said last week that Fonseka was planning a coup and that his arrest was a must under army regulations, other Sri Lankan potentates the Buddhist prelates included, seem to be voicing concerns over the arrest. The Indian government has also made it known that due process should be served on the general.
Whether the government would take the characteristic Rajapaksa stand of being impervious to international calls or whether it would be sensitized to the international and local voices being heard this time over releasing the general, could perhaps determine the shape of protest- politics that would perhaps signify the newest opposition political-phase against the Sri Lankan government.