Sri Lanka”s civil war winning Army commander, retired General Sarath Fonseka has drawn first blood over the appointment of another army chief General Daya Ratnayake as a member of the country’s main Opposition party the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB).
Ratnayake waltz into the arms of SJB leader Sajith Premadasa on Monday but Fonseka warned there is no way they can dance to the tune of the masses with people in the caliber of Ratnayake seated on the same stage.
“Nobody knows this man (Ratnayake) better than I do. He is a stooge of the rogue Rajapaksa family to whom corruption is a qualification. He is a man who set up a Jungle Court to please the Rajapaksas and got rid of several honest people in the army.
“He rose from number 25 to number 2 in the ranks in next to no time for the services he rendered to the Rajapaksas,” Fonseka said at a heavily attended media conference on Wednesday.
Fonseka called on all the right-thinking members and the publicly acclaimed stalwarts of the SJB not to miss the opportunity to clean up the party before an expected Presidential election in October that Premadasa will contest as the main Opposition candidate.
“I see the entry of Ratnayake into the SJV as a plot hatched by the Rajapaksas to destroy the party and we will not let that happen.
“The people have put their faith in us and Ratnayake is a virus that should be destroyed. When I was the army commander he had no role in decision making. I put him in charge of Provisions and supplies in Jaffna,” said Fonseka.
When asked why he waited until Ratnayake was made a member of the SJV to come out against his acceptance, Fonseka replied: “I learnt about his entry to the SJV through Facebook. I was taken unawares.”
