My Dear Green Man,

I thought I must write to you after what happened last week, when you and your party lost your umpteenth election. Honestly, no one expected you to win but what shocked most people was how convincingly your party was beaten.

It is true that very few people expected your party to win at Wayamba, but there were many who believed that there were some promising prospects in the Central Province where Seeni Bola was back in business after his civic rights hullabaloo.

After all, the man was talking of how he wanted to become President one day, so we thought he would be able to at least win his province for the party. But then, even though his meetings attracted huge crowds, it looks as if they all came to hear him speak only to go back and vote for the blues. Why, he even lost his seat at Hanguranketha!

Anyway, Green Man, do you realise that the number of votes polled by your party in many electorates has now fallen to about twenty five to thirty per cent? For a party which traditionally boasted of at least a thirty five to forty per cent of the vote, this is a huge drop and it must surely be worrying you.

And, just glancing through the election results, you will see that many electorates which were traditional strongholds of the Greens have now voted with the Blues. You know, Green Man, these voters will not just return to the Greens at the next electionsyou and your party will have to work hard to win them back and with Mahinda maama winning the war, that will be a very difficult task.

I know you and your party complain that Mahinda maama is selling the war and winning elections. I suppose there is some truth in your argument too, but it is also a fact that Mahinda maama is handling the war like no one before him did-and he is being rewarded for his persistence.

Surely Green Man you must know by now, after so many election defeats, that criticising the war and calling Thoppigala a useless stretch of jungle is not going to win elections. So, even if Mahinda maama is trying to market the war effort for his election purposes, it is you and your party which is helping him, unwittingly of course. Another reason why you and your party have lost is because you seem to expect the ruling party to automatically become unpopular and for the voters to hand over the government to you after a few years.

Now, it is true that the economy is in a mess, there is corruption and wastage and a hundred plus cabinet is doing next to nothing to develop the country. But it is a fact that despite all this the people do not trust you. And that means if the ruling party is seen as inefficient, your party is being perceived as being even less effective!

You must also realise, Green Man, if the present trend continues you are looking at a long, long stint in the Opposition-at least another five years or more. And now that Karu is sixty nine years old, you will be sixty next month and Seeni Bola is fifty seven, shouldn’t you be grooming the next generation of leaders just like Uncle JR did? Think about it, will you?

Yours truly,
Punchi Putha

PS-The agony never ends, does it? Just when you thought it was safe to go on another overseas holiday, Mahinda maama wants an election in the Western Province. My advice is, Green Man, don’t even plan on winning this one, but just make sure that you come up with a decent performance in at least some of the electorates in the Colombo district. Well, if you were to look at the bright side, at least no one frol your party is demanding your resignation these days, because they know that will not solve the problem either!