My dear Champika,
I know you must be still busy probably eating some of the left over kiribath and planting a few of those million trees, but I thought I must write to you, especially because I was surprised by the recent actions of your party.
We have known your party for some time now Champika, and I believe people have voted for it because they thought your party was somewhat different from the other ‘traditional’ parties, the Blues, Greens or Reds.
That is because at one time your party was represented in Parliament entirely by Buddhist monks and therefore people expected it to be above petty politics and to be principled in its words and deeds. It was also because people expected a lot from persons like you who were educated and claimed to be people of integrity. You would be different from the average politician, or so they thought.
In fact, we remember in the last Parliament, there was a time when you tried to adhere to those principles when you voted against the ruling party’s nominee for the Speaker’s post. That resulted in the country’s longest election for the Speaker’s post and on that occasion, some of your MPs were manhandled by ruling party MPs and had to seek treatment in hospital!
Of course, the irony is that now not only do you sit in the same Cabinet with the people who manhandled those Buddhist monks, the very person you supported from the Opposition for the post of Speaker has also switched his allegiances and is supporting the ruling party!
Since then your party has also come a long way. I suppose you would consider it an achievement to have sponsored the court case that sought to reduce Satellite’s term of office by one year. You succeeded and Mahinda maama was able to run for President and the rest, as they say is history. Of course, Mahinda maama has always been a grateful person and he has been repaying that debt of gratitude ever since, rewarding your party with Cabinet portfolios.
It is not that there hasn’t been some controversy from that time, Champika. Why, even some of your monks left the party and began functioning independently in Parliament. Of course, with a lesser number of representatives in the House now after the recent elections, that problem does not arise.
Then there was that other controversy about one of your leading and well-respected scholar monks and his Benz car. It is difficult to say whether he really did something wrong, but then it is also difficult to understand why a scholar monk who is so interested in archaeology and artifacts suddenly became interested in a brand new Benz car!
If that resulted in some negative publicity for your party Champika, you have been able to undo some of that damage with your work as the former minister in charge of environmental affairs although some of your proposals-like that of banning the ‘silly silly’ shopping bags-were rather silly and not really practical.
Anyway Champika, why I really wanted to write to you was to tell you how amazed we are about your party’s decision to support the Gaming Bill that was recently passed in Parliament, that allowed casinos to operate, subject of course to certain laws.
Now, when we first heard about this Bill we also heard a monk MP from your party protesting loudly and saying your party will definitely oppose the Bill, even if Mahinda maama would be unhappy about it. The next we heard was that although the two monk MPs now in Parliament from your party were not present when the vote was taken on the Bill, you had voted for it, Champika.Remember, Champika, we were happy when your party spearheaded the laws against alcohol and tobacco and were able to introduce those laws. So, it comes as a rude shock when you suddenly say ‘yes’ to casinos!
How can you justify one and not the other, Champika? In fact, even in Buddhism they are mostly spoken of together as ‘suraa, soodu’, isn’t it? Or is it that you want us to believe that these casinos will operate without tobacco and alcohol?
Now, don’t tell us that the government agreed to amendments and that is why you supported it because, that is a rather pathetic excuse and we might even hear you moving amendments to ‘Pansil’ , if the government wants you to!
So Champika, it does look like your party has also become just another political party after all, which stands not for principles but for petty personal considerations-the pleasures of being in power and the perks and privileges that it brings. Needless to say, we are disappointed but what can we now say except ‘unuth ekai, munuth ekai, arunuth ekai’!
Yours truly,
Punchi Putha
PS-Of course, there is a more convincing explanation for your party’s support of the laws that allow casinos to operate, Champika. Now that Mahinda maama has been crowned for a second time and a cabinet reshuffle is on the cards, you don’t want to be stupid and become just an MP, instead of being a powerful and energetic minister, do you? |
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