5th Column

My dear voter,
I thought of writing to you because, now that Parliament is dissolved at last and elections are due, you will be the focus of attention of all those seeking high office over the next few weeks. For a short time, they will want to make you feel as if you are a king or queen, before they forget all about you.

That doesn’t mean that you should take the next election lightly, dear voter. Remember, almost six months ago, you made a determined effort against all odds to cast your vote in a meaningful manner and most people will agree that the change that came about as a result of that was quite necessary.

In the past six months, we got a taste of the ‘Yahapaalanaya’ that we were promised. I think we all agree that what we got was a ‘Haya Paalanaya’ instead, with Maithri trying to get the support for what he thought was best for the country, but being pulled in different directions by different people.

The Greens were very keen to get the 19th Amendment through Parliament because they wanted to clip Maithri’s powers using that but when it came to the 20th Amendment that would have changed the system of elections, they were running scared and creating obstacles every inch of the way.

To be fair, they couldn’t govern properly either because, although they were supposed to be the ruling party, they had only some forty seats in a Parliament of more than two hundred members. Even the Cabinet spokesman, Rajitha, was not from the Greens and he spoke of everything but the truth!

If the Greens couldn’t get their act together, the Blues were no better. To begin with, they didn’t know whether they were the Government or the opposition. They were supposed to be in the opposition, but because they had greater numbers in Parliament, they were behaving as if they were the Government!

Besides, most of the blues didn’t know which side they were on: Maithri’s or Mahinda maama’s. Many had skeletons in their closet and wanted Mahinda maama to return so their past misdeeds won’t come to light. Others want to clean up the party and get rid of the thugs, rogues and drug dealers.

But there are still others — like SB and Dayasiri for instance — who are very smart. They sang Mahinda maama’s praises, threatening to strip people naked and making fun of ‘hitan’. Now, they are writing books for Maithri, no doubt to get in to his good books. You need to be wary about them, dear voter.

The other problem the Blues have is that too many people want to become Prime Minister, though they haven’t won the election yet. Mahinda maama no doubt wants to be PM, Nimal has his sweet dreams and I am sure Di Moo or Ratnasiri wouldn’t mind if they were asked again to do the job!

Dear voter, other than the Greens and the Blues I am sure you will also be wooed by Mahinda maama and his mob. There will be the Wimals, Vasus, Dineshes and Udayas who know that they have no future unless they hang on to Mahinda maama’s saatakaya and that is why they want to see him back.

Mahinda maama keeps telling us that he won’t split the Blues but that is exactly what he is doing. It is a pity because we don’t want him to become like Sanath the cricketer — trying to hang around by hook or by crook so much so that the people forget all the great deeds he did and think of him as a nuisance.

Then, apart from the Blues and the Greens and Mahinda maama, we have the Reds. They did a great job in January but they have lost Somawansa sahodaraya since then. They criticise anything and everything, so no one seems to know what they stand for which is why they are always a distant third.

Dear voter, you will be called upon to make a choice soon. No matter what colour you choose, I hope that you have the good sense to select the individuals you send to the next Parliament wisely. You didn’t do that very well five years ago — and the whole country is paying the price for that now.

Maithri did promise us in January that we wouldn’t have to cast our ‘manaapa’ or preference votes at the next election but he couldn’t keep that promise because there was no agreement among the Blues and the Greens. Hopefully, this will be the last time you will be casting your ‘manaapa’ votes.

Between now and August, dear voter, there will be many people at your door step, on your radios, televisions and newspapers claiming that they are honest, patriotic and clever. That is what these same people told us five years ago. I hope you can keep that in mind, before you make your final decision.

Yours truly,
Punchi Putha
PS: I heard that the most important Mahinda in this contest, the Elections Commissioner, has reached retirement age but that he will continue to function as the Commissioner because they couldn’t fully implement the 19th Amendment. Come to think of it, the dilly-dallying in ‘Yahapaalanaya’ has some benefits, doesn’t it?