My Dear Mahinda maama,

I thought I must write to you, especially after those resounding victories you scored in the two provincial council elections in the Central and North Western provinces in the past few weeks.

Of course, no one really gave the greens a real chance in these elections even in the hill country where Seeni Bola was running but what surprised everyone were the margins of your victory. Why, in some electorates the greens couldn’t get even twenty per cent of the vote!

Now, this must give you a lot of confidence, Mahinda maama. I am not so sure whether you would remember Margaret Thatcher’s slogan- ‘win a war and win an election’- but that seems to be just what you are doing at the moment.

And, Mahinda maama, it works so nicely because you can announce the capture of a new town for each provincial poll: Kilinochchi for the Central and North Western elections and, Puthukudiyirippu for the Western Province!

But you must also be careful Mahinda maama, of those around you, and the election results have given you a warning. Of course, I am referring to Thonda and Wimal both of whom failed to get enough votes for you.

Gone are the days when Thonda (Snr.) asked the people in the plantation regions to vote one way or the other and they did just that. Now, when Thonda (Jnr.) asks them to vote one way, they seem to be voting the other way!

Then there is Wimal. The man speaks as if he is God’s gift to socialism and behaves as if he has millions of votes at his command. Yes, people do come to hear him speak-probably for the entertainment value-but they too appear to have gone to the polling booths and voted for someone else!

Anyway, Mahinda maama, I also heard your general secretary, that Maithri chap, saying you would like a five-sixth majority in Parliament, the kind of which was enjoyed only by JRJ. Now, come to think of it, what I realise is that you are increasingly becoming like JRJ indeed. Why, you are getting the Indians to do what you want, you are dividing the opposition and inviting some of their factions to join you and you are having a running battle with your CJ just like JR did!

Even so, Mahinda maama, I hope that, unlike JR, you will not dilly-dally with a political solution to the ethnic issue once this is over and done with. After all, that is the mistake JR did and at the end of his two terms in office, people wanted him out rather than in. Now, you don’t want that to happen to you, would you?

Also Mahinda maama, you need to be careful about who you pose for pictures with. These days, if we look around the walls of Colombo it looks as if every Duminda and Lal has been spending some time with you smiling for the cameras. Now, some of them are not lily white angels and you do know that, don’t you?

Then, Mahinda maama you must also be careful not to cause so many problems for Uncle Ranil. With every defeat, the people in his party are demanding that he steps down and if he eventually does that, it wouldn’t be very healthy for you, would it?

Yours truly,
Punchi Putha

PS- Uncle Bandula has just announced that the price of gas has been reduced by quite a bit. Tell me, Mahinda maama, do these gas prices follow the trends in the world market or do they reflect the election schedule in our own little island?