Commander's Grudge
Shavendra Silva has made a serious accusation. According to the media, Shavendra asserts that he was removed from the post of Army Commander in May 2022, and goes on to say that shortly thereafter, President Gotabaya had to flee the country. He is suggesting that if he was not removed from his post, things would have been different. This is a matter of serious concern.
Initially, I considered not writing anything after his retirement because it did not seem important. The readers would remember that I have criticised Shavendra’s failure to protect the democratically elected President of the Republic during one of the country’s darkest hours.
However, that does not mean we expected him to kill any civilians. If killing is all he knows when it comes to controlling violent mob rule instigated by foreign forces, then it only reflects his own inadequacies as a leader of a country’s military in whatever capacity. But then again, we all know his weaknesses in more than one domain. So, the purpose of this writing relates to his highly questionable retirement remarks.
First, it sounds like a desperate and rather cheap attempt to pacify his own guilty conscience. Any decent man would not fall to the low level of simplifying his leader, the man who helped him personally and professionally, who played a critical leadership role in defeating the then world’s deadliest terrorist organisation, and who then saved millions of lives from the pandemic, as someone who just “fled” the country. These are the fine things that define a gentleman from others.
However, that’s not the worst part of his controversial statement. He’s suggesting that if he was not removed from the post of commander, then President Gotabaya would not have been required to leave the country or his presidency. It’s a serious accusation against his successor, Vikum Liyanage. Setting aside the fact that it’s such an ugly betrayal of his fellow man in uniform, Shavendra seems to be directly passing the blame to Vikum.
It is clear from his statement that he is bitter about his removal from the post of Army Commander due to his pathetic failure in his duty. And that brings up more suspicion about whether that grudge had anything to do with the July 9 violation of the constitution. As we can see, there’s more to it than what meets the eye. May the Dharma Guide Your Way!
