General dies a political death -Part One

Written by Day

“Failing to Plan is Planning to Fail"- Author Unknown

(January 28, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Background: Time is about 3:20 pm (1520hrs) Baghdad time; Date is 13 December 2009. I am writing this analysis well in advance (but have updated this from time to time as things changed, such as TNA endorsing SF etc, up until 10 January 2010). I know this presidential election is too close to call. But I do not need the computer-generated advanced or complex statistical models to do an analysis to make a prediction given the public mood, political violence let loose, misuse of government resources, mud-slinging, level of vote rigging expected or allegedly planned etc.

In my prediction I may be right or wrong, and that is the chance I am taking at this time. I asked three Sinhalese, one Tamil and one Muslim, menial labourers working in Al-Anbar province in Iraq how they would vote in the presidential election if they cast their vote. Here is the tally; the three Sinhalese for MR (he has brought peace!), the Muslim for SF (for his defeating LTTE!), and the Tamil for nobody (Sinhalese, UNP, or UFPA did not provide him a job, Nepalese co-workers around him deadpanned; jokingly saying he was a terrorist).

So in a country where there are many more three-wheeler drivers than doctors, and each and every one’s vote carries the same weight though their understanding of a manifesto, corruption, national security and future of a country being totally different one could guess what would happen on 26 January 2007. By coming to know the pulse on the ground, monitoring the media and Internet, with feed backs from my friends and what have you I think MR is going to win with a slim margin mainly thanks to a very effective smear campaign, the polls violence unleashed on the ‘common opposition’, the alleged preparation for vote rigging and misuse of government resources.

BUT to be fair, I am going to release this to the media, only after the presidential polls have closed. I request the media to publish this article if and only if the sui generis General has lost in his bid to be the President of Sri Lanka rather the Chief Executive Officer of Sri Lanka.
In the same token if SF does win, it is because the UPFA government’s rampant corruption, shameless nepotism, thuggery, lawlessness and cronyism and its failure to exploit to its maximum advantage the fatal mistakes of SF I discuss here and, most importantly, Tamil votes sounding the death knell to UFPA administration!

Abraham Lincoln, a former US President, once said “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time”. But he could have said it more poignantly or tailor-made it for Sri Lanka this way “In Sri Lanka, career politicians can fool all the voters all the time, Period.”

Being so fed up and disappointed, this time the voters needed a clean, total stranger, apolitical, proven or good Chief Executive Officer to stanch or arrest the sorry state of affairs in Sri Lanka and properly manage and govern it.

I wrote sort of a co-ed piece titled “Gen Fonseka as the Chief Executive of Future Sri Lanka”. I thought, then, he would take the upper hand instead of playing ‘second fiddle’ to all these failed opportunistic politicians or a bunch of rascals.

I am going to give the benefit of the doubt to Gen SF. Sri Lanka is not a place for clean politics, as a matter of fact there is no country in the world without the rough and tumble politics to a varying degree. We are not living in perfect societies or a Utopian world. My gut feeling is such that SF took this path of associating with the political parties and characters he has associated and sought support to contest this presidential election, to promise things that did not come out SF the horse’s mouth until he decided to hang the ‘military’ boots, changing his ‘tone’ to suit the occasion, place, issue or ‘people’, with one and only motive in his mind i.e. ‘As I have no necessary political background and knowledge or the support required to wage an effective political or apolitical campaign on my own, let me try this way or path to get a winning mandate, with that mandate I am automatically the Commander-in-Chief! Then I am the ‘known devil’ in the Sri Lankan military and the unknown devil in Sri Lankan politics. I have the fullest support from my rank and file though a majority of military officers have fallen out with me because I disliked the chicken-hearted ones and gave them a hard time. As long as I have my loyal Army under my command and control I can very well sort out any mess or the country’.

By the way a country only needs brave military officers who perform well and deliver the goods on the battlefield, not the ones who deliver ‘death by Power Point’ from air-conditioned rooms in Army Headquarters or rear headquarters and far away from the action but close to the warm bodies of their wives, girlfriends, or numerous ’comely or homely dates’. You have already heard or witnessed the sorry and pathetic nature of the officer corps of the Sri Lankan military in the media.

Here is an alleged story published in the media, a commando Lieutenant Colonel sent overseas to provide ‘personal protection’ to a crown prince of the uncrowned royal family. The crown prince is a subaltern, and a propped up rugger captain, undergoing overseas training thanks to, by the courtesy of and made possible by a sycophant, political ex-service commander and the present one. It is said that the Lt Col is cooking for him too. They say he is doing what we call multitasking; cooking, spying on dissidents, driving etc. My worry is whether the LT Col in question gladly ‘performs’ on his knees a ‘BJ’, to be exact Bare Back BJ To Completion With Swallow (BBBJTCWS) on the crown prince routinely besides cooking, washing and cleaning. I am not making next one out, I have seen for six months the disgraceful behavior of another commando officer undergoing overseas training. My wife and brother-in-law had to ‘chew’ him to put him back in line.

Once one loses his internal controls, shame and fear, he is capable of doing any shameless or disgraceful thing. These vacuous or disgraceful ones are famous in pomp and legend but not in reality. And, in short, like the 99 percent present day Sri Lankan politicos, they are white elephants, national liabilities!

First thing a Chief Executive Officer needs to maintaining peace and stability and law and order in a country is a very loyal, professional and capable military. Then he can use it for the betterment or destruction, good or worse of the country. So Gen SF is at a good wicket as far as the rank and file is concerned. If one feels their ‘pulse’ he realizes that they covertly wish that SF would win the elections. I have reservations about the officer corps, as a whole. They would put a spanner in the works as the majority of them are unhappy with him for disturbing their cushy lives or living in clover. I know of the officers in Sri Lanka military first hand as I have served along with them then, or hear and see them from time to time, now. Only a few of them have maintained the dignity and meaning of their rank, been upright and honest, and brave and very understanding throughout their careers.

Truly and practically speaking no one could blame SF’s political expedient way of thinking or his psychology in this Presidential Election. At the end of the day of 26th January 2010 or at the presidential polls close what matters is the mission accomplishment i.e. to get enough votes to be the President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka for next six years.
Here are the post mortem results rather the causes of SF’s political death; not Seizing the Turning Point (rather catching the silver bullet); playing second fiddle to failed politicians and perennial losers, political rascals and humbugs, and the insurgents or Comrades in Red, and terrorists in slippers then, now turned activists and peaceniks; association with a jinx and shameless chameleons or the proverbial ‘forked tongues’; the mistake of assuming that ‘mulligans’ would be allowed once SF ruffled the incumbent’s and his brothers’ feathers, got on their nerves or stepped on their toes; talking like a typical politico and engaging in Pilate-like hand washing rather than a fearless General or a CEO; the ‘al Jazeera Effect’ in propaganda, media and Information Operations; stretch of conflict of interest; Failure to Plan Properly to Prevent P*ss Poor Performance (6Ps).

If sui generis General Sarath Fonseka does lose on 26th January 2010 in an island-wide presidential election ballot count, I dare say, he lost it on 12 November 2009 in the premises of Kelaniya Rajmaha Viharaya, not in the halls of voting centers on the Election Day. He committed the most fatal mistake on that day by not seizing the turning point or catching the silver bullet and capitalizing it to gain the maximum political capital or mileage, like Lech Wałęsa seized the turning point on 14 August 1980, by scaling the wall of Lenin Shipyard of Gdańsk to join the occupational strike in session. Adrenalin rush and emotions were so high he became instantly the leader of this strike and then went on to become the President of Poland on 9 December 1990. Elsewhere I will elaborate, one by one, more on all the fatal mistakes SF did commit in his presidential bid. Stay tuned, do not touch the dial rather ‘x’ this web page out as the best is yet to come, I promise!

As I said earlier this presidential election is too close to call, by the time this is published the universal suffrage would have spoken and a President elected. If it does result in sort of a runoff situation, I am sure; there would be bloodletting on the streets. All indications are such or indicators pointing towards that this is going to turn out to be the most polarizing and damaging presidential election since Sri Lanka’s independence. It is polarizing for fracturing the majority Sinhalese into denominations, classes, segments or castes of non-players, non-entities or lame ducks. They will become the powerless, helpless and hapless in the process of future decision making of national importance or consensus, giving the upper hand, inadvertently, to the insidious, disingenuous, anti-Sri Lanka forces and persons that are hell-bent on espousing and creating a separate State and demanding undue rights and privileges in comparison to some peoples of the preponderance of other nations are not entitled to or enjoying. It is damaging for fracturing a professionally trained and war winning Army to cliques or rings that would be ‘used, abused and kicked to the curb’ by, what I use to call, AIFs (Apparatchiks-in-Fatigues).

In case if Sri Lanka does need the victorious Army in future date for preserving the unitary state of Sri Lanka, pardon me for saying this, Good Luck on that! That is not a thought of a civilian but of a ‘soldier’, who has experienced, witnessed and, after all, been subjected to the sad, poor and pathetic psyche of the Apparatchiks-in-Fatigues (AIF) for all most one and half decades. After 26th January 2010 the academia and intelligentsia will use the term I use here to refer to Sri Lanka military as ‘Sri Lankan militias’. They will use such titles as ‘militia commander’ or ‘warlord’ rather than ranks such as ‘major general’, ‘commodore’, ‘lieutenant colonel’, or ‘wing commander’.

Isn’t it sad and pathetic that ranks once held by Sandhurts trained classy and quality officers like Maj Gen CAMN Silva or Densil Kobbakaduwa or Sri Lanka trained fine and brave Lt Col VSM Jayawardena or Lalith Jayasinghe are slighted that way? I (very humbly say) have had firsthand experiences with all of them, at one point of time or another. Sri Lanka cannot ask for better military sons than them. They were/are, in the right and correct sense of the words, officers and gentlemen!

If one needs example for ‘tribal elders’ and their militias please read about Iraq and Afghanistan. That is why they have been ungoverned and in chaos from the time immemorial and cannot ever have a properly elected government and a professional army. When one is beholden to the tribal chief and his warlord or militia commander rather than being fair and firm, upright and unbiased, loyal or showing fealty to the government elected by ballot(not by bullet) and the chain of command of its professional army, then he asks for a ‘politically’ failed State and has to abide it forever! It is sad and pathetic and, unfortunately, Sri Lanka is almost there. What to do?

For the starters, for a campaign, military, peace or political to be a success or result in a resounding victory there has to be a turning point or points that has/have to be seized forthwith and exploit to the fullest extent possible. I will give below one example each for the campaigns I am talking about.

The ‘militarily successful’ Vadamarachchi Campaign; the turning point was that GOSL came to know through a blackmailed, very high ranking Indian intelligence officer, DIG UK, that there was a severe shortage or dearth of LTTE munitions stockpiles, and knowing that Sri Lankan Security Forces, led by able-bodied Maj Gen Kobbekaduwa, pressed on until the infamous Indian ‘dhal drop’!

Peace Campaign: The following incidents must and can be developed to be the turning points for permanent peace between India and Pakistan-A unique travel of the ten girls from Pakistan to a land which seemed out of their reach-their very own neighbor India. The journey began in Islamabad, first in their hearts, as a peace mission to India. It began under the able guidance of Hajra Ahmed, the principal of the Khaldunia School in Islamabad, who along with history and literature teacher Jamaluddin, and Tahira, an enthusiastic volunteer, dared to dream of a mission of peace. Ten girl students and their teachers decided to put caution aside, in every sense, and make the journey to a city within the hotbed of religious tension in India-Lucknow. Their trip was to be made around the same time as another trip across the border-of President Musharraf to meet with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Any guesses as to which was more successful? And the recent example of emergency landing of the plane in Chennai after former Pakistan cricket captain Wasim Akram's wife fell sick (if politicians have been unsuccessful, the people or interaction through sports such as cricket or soccer can be successful!).

Political-The Obama Campaign using of ‘Obama Girl’ video that went viral on You Tube, use of Internet like no other by the ‘young college attending Obama stalwarts’ and the catchy phrases like ‘Yes, We can!’ and ‘Change’!

The real turning point (silver bullet) for SF to win the presidential election on 26 January 2010 was presented to, unexpectedly but divinely, felicitously but inadvertently, on 12 November 2009 by the alleged goon squads of a thug politico with an alleged ‘Honorary Doctorate’ on ‘physiotherapy’, in the immediate environs of the hallowed sanctity of the Kelaniya Raja Maha Viharaya, one of the three places the Buddha visited in Sri Lanka. Lucky for the Buddha He had the invitation of the Naga King Maniakkhika. Sadly for SF he was most ‘unwelcome’ to ‘modern day self-claimed Dr. Dutu Gemunu’ and his bought off, drunk and ‘high on drugs’ lackeys or hooligans!

SF, after relinquishing his CDS duties went to the Temple for much needed blessings, tranquility and peace of mind for his way ahead or ‘long war’. The peace and proceedings were disturbed and entrances to the Temple blocked by the goons. What did Gen SF do, instead of boarding a CTB or private bus from there, accompanied by Anoma and four armed soldiers, paying the bus fare and getting off at Pettah? He complained about the threat to his life and lack of security, and later initiated a FR case demanding more security.

Had he had the presence of mind, the moral and physical courage to board a bus on that occasion, leaving behind the Defenders and his so-called 40 million rupees worth bullet-proof vehicle MR and the brothers crow about, he would have arrived at Pettah to an unprecedented Hero’s Welcome and almost as President-elect, to the chants of ‘Long Live General!’ ‘Future President!’, ‘Our Leader!’, ‘Sarath the Lion’! I dare say it without an iota of doubt; if he does lose, he lost it on 12 November 2009!

Elections, like rock concerts, are about adrenaline rush and emotions (By the way, how many people read, and are capable of understanding a manifesto, A to Z, of a candidate and his party before casting their vote?).

Imagine, on hearing the General traveling in common transport, the flurry of activity that would have ensued; Dialog and Mobitel circuits sort of ‘gone in extremis’ and ‘crashed’, the landline circuits burdened, spontaneous gatherings of crowds along roads to cheer on! The psychological blow, the shock and awe, that could have resulted or been dealt, from which I doubt the incumbent; his brothers and their ardent party supporters would have fully or ever recovered. It would have definitely sounded the death knell for the incumbent.

It would definitely have sent chills and shivers down their spines paralyzing them with fear and disbelief. The entire nation would have been made hysterical or in frenzy. With those levels of spontaneously generated emotions, hysteria and frenzy SF would have secured a comfortable lead or cushion (a political capital) that could have been helpful to negate the voter loss due to mud-slinging or an effective smear campaign on Gen Fonseka's alleged sexual misconduct, vicious vindictiveness and malpractices and son-in-law Danuna’s alleged arms deals.

Furthermore his traveling by bus would have become the talk of the town for the present day every walk of life and an urban legend for future generations. It could have easily upstaged the famous Wijayananda Dahanayake episode, going home (to Galle) by ‘Ruhunu Kumari’ after he lost premiership and was displaced from the Temple Trees!

How come on that day ‘Fonnie’ did not become Manny (Manny Pacquiao), who delivers the knockout punches to the opponent with the deadly right hook and unifies an entire nation-the Philippines (a nation, like Sri Lanka, riddled with corruption and in chaos) sending every Filipino and Filipina to tears of joy and total frenzy on the fight day?

Why SF missed that chance to create an atmosphere of a Guns and Roses rock concert, the ardent followers in thousands rocking in unison, happiness and joy for hours forgetting for the time being the worries and miseries of their lives (By the way their song ‘November Rain’ became the most requested video on MTV and won an MTV award and reached Billboard Hot 100 and peaked at # 3 on the chart.)? For SF the turning point, though inadvertently presented at the Temple, could have been his November Rain of ‘Flowers’ or ‘Followers’, the blessing in disguise, a boon rather than bane. Another missed opportunity, another wasted chance, the most fatal mistake in his presidential bid: A FAIT ACCOMPLI!

For starters and doubters as well, here is the analogous situation for the seizing and exploiting to the fullest of a turning point: On 14 August 1980, after the beginning of an occupational strike in the Lenin Shipyard of Gdańsk, Lech Wałęsa scaled the shipyard’s wall and became the instant leader of this strike. The emotions and adrenalin rush on the spur of that moment created sort of an avalanche effect and popularity tsunami tidal wave for him. The strike was spontaneously followed by similar strikes, first in Gdańsk, and then across Poland, and he went on to become the President of Poland in 1990.

Here we go! The fatal mistakes, one by one;

1. SF’s asking too much and too many for personal protection, for personal use, for personal ownership and for personal satisfaction of his post retirement life.
At least SF should have heard following or someone told him about it so that he could have taken a cue from it; "Don't ever underestimate the heart of a champion!” Rudolph Tomjanovich.

(Tomjanovich guided the Houston Rockets basketball team to the US Midwest Division title, making him the first head coach to ever take his team from the lottery to a division crown during his first full season. Building on this success, Rudy T. led the team to back-to-back NBA championships in 1994 and 1995. On the playoff run to their second title, the Rockets became the lowest seed (sixth) to win one, and the only team in history to defeat the teams with the four best regular season records in the playoffs. It was on the floor of The Summit (sports arena) after they captured their second title that Rudy proclaimed, "Don't ever underestimate the heart of a champion!" His career wins and winning percentage are Rockets franchise records.)

a. in para 5 of his Letter of Resignation SF sounds more like a terrified, panic-stricken person than a brave soldier who is ready to receive the presidential mantle. I know of an officer who developed a very simple ‘homegrown’ personal protection solution and presented it to the directors of an armed service, after his batchmate, an Aide-De-Camp (ADC), died in an explosion with his Commander (that young officer was the first to introduce in his plan the concept of outrider escorts, by studying the Sri Lankan traffic jams and the threats posed due to them. It is known now the blast effect on Gen SF’s motorcade was mitigated due to kicking the pregnant suicide bomber aside by one of outrider commando escorts!). Since the time of his plan was presented to the Commander and the Directors, a total of five Commanders of the same service have very comfortably retired without a scratch or cut on their bodies as a result of a suicide blast or an armed attack!

I am sorry to say the numbers SF has asked for protection is way too high. If you need a battalion or more for one’s personal security then his status is not of an individual officer but a military fortress or a garrison. Too many outlays have to be unnecessarily spent for the protection of an individual.

I do know he is under threat. But there are other people who are under threat too. What is the fate of the poor judges who impose death penalty on drug kingpins, the policemen who catch the underworld criminals, journalists who expose scandals, the honest income tax collectors and customs officers, if any, who haul before the courts the wealthy criminal tax evaders or the smugglers? I fully understand that SF has a higher level of threat and does need a robust personnel protection team. It is also true that when terrorists say ‘we have to be lucky only once but you have to be lucky always’ or ‘you have the watches but we have the time’!

For success it takes time and luck, they say! But as a General with decades of experience and learning, local and overseas, in peacetime and in battle he needs to know how to influence the luck and timing, how to mitigate the risks and threats to his life and that of his family.
He should have developed a Risk Assessment Matrix for himself with Severity on Y-axis and Probability on X-axis and filled the matrix with risk levels and then developed risk reduction measures to mitigate those risks to ‘Low’ level! Or else he could have used the METT-TC, mission, enemy, terrain, troops, and time available and civilian considerations format as another means to assess his risks.

As Army Commander or Chief of Defence Staff he is supposed to solve the problems of more than two hundred thousand of his charges-officers, soldiers and their family members, leave alone his own. I am not an admirer of Gen Collin Powel anymore after the ‘sexed up’ WMD presentation against Iraq at UN, but he once summed up leadership very poignantly this way “The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is the day you have stopped leading them. They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care. Either case is a failure of leadership.” So there it goes, how come soldiers seek redress when Army Commander himself crying, whining and bitching like a child or callow farm boy!

So leadership is not to cry, bicker and whine on your behalf about your own problems but to improvise; mitigate your own risks to manageable levels on your own; to take calculated risks when it deemed necessary, and go all the way out to help your soldiers to solve theirs and their families’ problems and issues somehow or other (using, what I term, by beg-borrow-steal-or-kill method). You have to have the guts to do the impossible. They call it INTESTINAL FORTITUDE but my term for that is, ‘INTESTICLE FORTITUDE®’ (INTEStinal+tesTICLE)!

b. Furthermore he was demanding, calculating and comparing too. When he compared himself with his ‘fallen out’ swim team member’s security detail’s strength and the facilities and hardware at its disposal he did not realize that he descended, in no time, from a ‘clean’ general to the level that of a ‘sycophant political admiral’! He lost instantly the moral high ground and the respect he had in the eyes and minds of the analytical intelligentsia. He was pretty much oblivious to the very reason why a vast majority of people were dying or yearning to vote him into power, to get rid of sheer waste, fraud and abuse!
I do not want sound patronizing but let me give some tips, hints and examples how to mitigate risks; retain the element of surprise (one and most effective principle of war); seize the initiative; develop good intelligence gathering and act swiftly on actionable intelligence; find a home to live in a gated community where there is human and electronic surveillance; use surveillance equipment such as video and miniature spy cameras and gadgets; use effective and reliable communications (scrambled or secure cell phones and/or telephones); employ fiercely loyal and brutally honest guards (commandos are good but some soldiers are better-e.g. Hasalaka Weeraya, the first ever recognized, documented and, above all, immortalized modern day ‘Suicide LION’); change the routine; use streaming video, video teleconference (VTC) or SKYPE and Yahoo video web chat to conduct town hall meetings; brush up on individual basic combat life saver skills(check for response, open the airway, stop bleeding and prevent shock until help arrives); be physically fit and flexible ( Have seen how President Bush ducked, with a smile, the shoe thrown at him without moving a step? The ex-president runs, bikes and is an avid outdoorsman!); refresher training on his individual weapon (Heard that Rajive Ghandi took to pistol firing after his mother was killed?); use well-wishers and the representatives with integrity to deputize; seek the help of or pay loyal off-duty soldiers and policemen to pull security (in USA a lot of policemen, during off-duty hours, do moonlighting for VIPs, diplomats, CEOs and celebrities); failing all of which use the ‘Green Card’ and do a tactical and administrative withdrawal to an overseas location and conduct all the business from there. In a lighter vein, for more tips one has to pay me the amounts Sri Lanka paid to the ex-Special Air Service guys and Royal Marines!

Sri Lankans would be more sympathetic or understanding as he had to leave ‘temporally’ to return upon winning the Presidential Election to be sworn in, as there was actual and real threats to his life that could not be mitigated with 25 armed soldiers. Then, once elected, he would have his own Army again for his protection. Political adversaries would flay him saying he cowered and was a coward and left the ‘masses’. But Sri Lanka commands a nearly100 percent literacy rate and they are intelligent too. Running away to live to fight another day is not cowardice, it gives you a better chance of surviving, for which he would not have lost a wee bit of respect or the very understanding Sri Lankans have had for him (Example-after the Vadamarachi Campaign Prabakaran fled to Tamilnadu, did he lose support or respect from his fighters? No, not at all! But when he went from ‘Prabakaran’ to ‘HONARABLE’ PIRIBAHARAN, from wearing the ‘stripped fatigues’ to ‘WEALTHY BUSINESS SUITS’ he became in the eyes of intellectuals, be they Tamils or Sinhalese, western or Indian, a very selfish, shameless humbug living in recluse and enjoying a very lavish and luxurious life, which led to loss of respect for him, his own political demise and violent death on the banks of the Nanthikadal lagoon on or about 18 May 2009, all peace-loving Sri Lankans ‘GLADLY’ miss him, GOBR!)

c. The alleged newspaper reports of demanding 25 perches of prime land against the original offer of 10 perches of real estate worth Rs. 100 million in Colombo; the funds remitted out of President’s funds to meet the expenses of Gen. Fonseka children’s education and still being remitted; bullet proof car worth Rs. 40 million given to him at a cost of just Rs. 2 million do not help his grievances of alleged ill-treatment. If these offers are true then he has been amply rewarded. Still if he wanted to bitterly complain of ill-treatment then he should have disowned or refused everything given and offered and fought on principle. You can't eat your cake and have it too! The argument that other service commanders got them ‘why not I?’ does not hold water as other service commanders were not held in the highest esteem he was held in. He was the sui generis General!

d. Gen SF’s lamenting about ‘Honorary Doctorates’ for the President and Defense Secretary (not for him, the Service Commanders and IGP) that undoubtedly created some intriguing controversy in Sri Lankan politics is much ado about nothing. After all these ‘Honorary Doctorates’ have been proposed by a ‘POLITCAL’ (Science) professor of a university in Colombo. When something is associated with the word ‘politics or political’ it automatically loses the genuineness or credibility as, nowadays, there is no credible or genuine politicking or credible or genuine politicos or political professors in Sri Lanka.

Our Kung Fu hero, Bruce Lee, said it best about ‘qualifications, knowledge or Skills’: Bruce Lee actually thought the belt system was stupid, and upset people at martial arts conventions by claiming “THE ONLY THING BELTS (Honorary Doctorates) ARE GOOD AT IS FOR HOLDING UP YOUR PANTS (one’s own narcissistic image)”!

Here is another case; apart from his Nobel Prize (1983), former president of Poland, Lech Wałęsa received several other international prizes. He holds 35 ‘Honorary Doctorates’ from several United States and European universities. Named "Man of the Year" by: Time Magazine, 1981; The Financial Times, 1980; the observer, 1980[, 2009; Legion of Liberty (IPEA). Did all these help him? He was NOT RE-ELECTED. The opposition used Wałęsa's lack of higher education as a political weapon.

To be continued ….