Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse and Sarath Fonseka, the incarcerated general of the country's armed forces, are staring at a catch-22 situation. The former is also in the face of an approaching political storm that may damage the country's political stability and already questionable human rights image.
For Rajapakse, the decision to put his once victorious general who has fallen from grace, through the process of a court martial, may come back to haunt him as he has given the opposition an opportunity to question his credibility as a leader. His actions may create fresh fissures in the country, just nine months after the LTTE have been vanquished.
For Fonseka, the nightmare is just beginning. The government has lined up one charge after another against him. Even if he manoeuvres past one, another will be slapped upon him. It is a carefully crafted plan.
By constantly being made to focus on the court martial, Fonseka will have little, or no time, to protest against the election results which he claims had been rigged in favour of Rajapakse.
Fonseka had won forty per cent of the votes, this means that a significant majority are dissatisfied with the president. What he reveals in the trial will be interesting and damning.
