By

Shamindra Ferdinando

Democratic Party Leader and former Army Chief Lt. Gen. Sarath Fonseka insists that he has no faith in coalitions meant to achieve short term projects such as consensus on a common presidential candidate to face incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa at the next presidential election.

Asked to comment on a recent statement attributed to Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera of the National Movement for Social Justice (NMSJ) regarding the organisation decision to field a common candidate to pave the way for the abolition of the executive presidency, Gen. Fonseka said that such a decision taken at a gathering of 100 to 150 persons in Colombo would be irrelevant as far as the electorate was concerned.

A person nominated by such a crowd couldn’t be considered a common candidate at a presidential poll, one-time Chief of Defence Staff told a hastily arranged media briefing on Thursday (21) at the DP headquarters, Pita Kotte, explaining the difficulties faced by those contesting on the DP ticket at the forthcoming Uva Provincial Council polls.

Gen. Fonseka reiterated that the Opposition should get together for the sake of the country instead of seeking alliances meant to achieve what he called temporary and short-term projects.

The UNP, JVP and TNA backed Fonseka’s candidature at the last presidential election in January 2010. Asserting that the SLFP-led UPFA had a vote bank of about 4.4 mn, Gen. Fonseka said that the Opposition should make every effort to win over the remaining 10 mn voters.

Asked by The Island whether he now regretted entering politics after having successfully led the army against the LTTE in May 2009, a grim looking Fonseka stressed the need to change what he called political culture here.

About 98 per cent of those who had entered politics pursued private agendas at the expense of truth and accountability, Fonseka said, adding that he would do everything possible to change the system. The Sinha Regiment veteran said that somebody would take up the challenge even if he couldn’t do it.

The media, too, was under pressure from the government as well as those worked at the behest of the political leadership

Courtesy:The Island