Sarath Fonseka, the truth, and shooting the messenger

Election days are here again, and the skeletons are coming dancing out of the closet.

In case you missed the news, Sarath Fonseka (aka the racist) is now running for presidency as part of the UNP. And im proper Sri Lankan mud-slinging style, he decided to drop a bombshell on the people. Evidently he thought it would bring the people to his side.

He claimed that Gota (The Beast's kid brother, and the Secretary for Defence) ordered that all surrendering LTTE leaders should be shot. This hit the news in epic fashion. After all, the head of the military had ordered that the surrendering leaders should be killed. No trial. No mercy. Just killed.

This made a lot of people angry. So much so that SF had to release a statement that said that he was misquoted.

The thing is, almost all of us know that what he said was the truth. Not only did The Beast give out a kill order on all the heads of the LTTE, but he ordered that the families of those leaders should also be killed. Three days after the news came out that Prabhakaran was killed, the news started circulating in Sri Lanka that he was not killed on the day he was supposed to have been killed while attempting to escape.

He had surrendered to the Army three days before, on the day that The Beast claimed he was returning to a country free of terror. He was captured with his family, kept alive and tortured. The stories are gruesome to hear. Tales of his kids being tortured and killed in front of him. Of the same treatment being given to the families of the other LTTE leaders who surrendered.

These tales were - obviously - hearsay. But they had a ring of truth to them. The word came not from above, but from the ground-level troops. There is no proof. There may never be proof. This is not the kind of thing you write a memo on.

And yet, its sounds so horribly true. The Sri Lankan Governments have a long history of killing the people it doesn't like. If you piss them off enough, they will come after you and kill you. Ask Lasantha Wickrematunga. If they really hate you, you'll be disappeared and tortured and killed. Ask Rohana Wijeweera.

Ask Prabhakaran.

The fact of the matter is that the Sri Lankan people already knew what had happened. And SF felt that by confirming what people knew he could get people on to his side. That by confirming the extra-judicial killings happened, and that the Government ordered it, he would make people realise what a fucked up and corrupt government we have.

He was wrong.

It's not that the people don't know how fucked up things are in Sri Lanka. It's not that no one knew what happened. Its just what we didn't want it confirmed.

When I was a young lad, I used to get into a lot of trouble. I used to go out and get drunk and/or stoned and/or in a fight and/or laid. I haven't stopped yet. But that's another story.

My poor parents knew about it. They knew that their dear darling son was upto a lot of mischief. But, bless their hearts, as long as they didn't officially know, they were ok. As long as i didn't get hauled into jail, or wasn't brought home by some irate father, things were just fine.

Denial, it's not just a river in Egypt.

People knew. People accepted it. Many even supported it. But as long as it wasn't an official statement, they could always say it was unconfirmed. and that it was probably rumour. Though deep in their hearts, they not only knew it was true, they wanted it to be true.

But when it gets told. When it is made public, people are made to see themselves for what they are. Vengeful. Petty. Murderous. SF telling the people this made them have to look at themselves, and it wasn't pretty.

So they shoot the messenger. After all, they can't accept that the kind of people they are can they? Actually accpet their faults and foibles? Say it ain't so!!

So SF shoots himself in the foot. Because, even though we keep saying we want the truth, we really don't.

We can't handle the truth.