5th Column

My dear Green Man,
I am writing to you because I am a bit confused these days about where the ‘yahapaalanaya’ government led by Maithri and you is heading. After seeing and hearing what is being said in the house near the Diyawanna Oya and outside it, I am none the wiser, so I thought I would ask you.

Pardon me, Green Man, I am beginning to wonder whether you have forgotten why you are holding high office today. Less than a year ago, in January to be precise, the majority of people in this country thought that it would be a good idea to have a change of government against all odds.

They did so, saying ‘no’ to Mahinda maama’s request for a third term of office even though we all owed a debt of gratitude to him for ridding the country of terrorism. That is because they thought that Mahinda maama and some members of his family were becoming a law unto themselves.

Both Maithri and you promised us that the thieves of the ‘R’ era would be caught and punished. Why, Maithri even said that the airport would be closed, so that the thieves wouldn’t be able to get away. It is good that you decided very early not to keep that promise; otherwise the airport would still be closed!

Now almost one year has gone by and for the last three months, Parliament has also been under your control but, instead of catching the thieves of the ‘R’ era, there is utter confusion among your ranks. Indeed five or six people seem to be running the show- ‘haya paalanaya’ instead of ‘yahapaalanaya’!

Take for instance, the assault on university students where we saw female students being mercilessly assaulted. The Police say it is the fault of university officials. Lucky, the man in charge of campuses, says it is the fault of the Police but both the Police and the campuses are under green ministers!

Then we had the spectacle of the Police telling us that the students were not assaulted but were only ‘moved’ by them but the pictures taken by the media were made to look like they were baton charged. It is funny how they all ended up bleeding after just being ‘moved’, don’t you think, Green Man?

Now, if Mahinda maama was boss and SB was dealing with university students, there would have been none of this nonsense. SB would have been his usual self and said “Yes, I ordered them to be baton charged by the Police, so what?” and that would have been the end of that discussion!

Instead, when people insisted on knowing what really happened and everyone started complaining, you did what you usually do: you appointed a committee to look in to the matter. Now we all know how that ends. If anyone is in doubt, all they have to is to ask the Governor of the Central Bank!

As if the fiasco about campus students wasn’t bad enough, we have the minister in charge of the cops who was an ex-AG now batting for a company called AG and saying that everything is above board on board a floating armoury and that the cops were only trying to score ‘points’ with their inquiries.

Then we heard the other ‘R’ from a town close to Colombo claiming the credit for saving Mahinda maama’s soldier brother saying he prevented him from being arrested. And he too says there is nothing wrong in the activities of the ‘AG’ company and that we should all stop worrying about it.

Excuse me, Green Man, I thought the whole aim of ‘yahapaalanaya’ was to stop politicians from interfering with the Police, the Attorney General, the judiciary and the courts. If so, how can someone say he prevented another person from being arrested, even if he happens to be the Minister of Justice?

The icing on the cake came when this angered the Field Marshall who, in his own inimitable way gave a piece of his mind about these shenanigans. The Field Marshall, who was an ardent supporter of ‘yahapaalanaya’ during Maithri’s campaign is being sued by the ‘other’ R in Maithri’s cabinet!

The last word, of course, has to be left to the dentist who says what the ex-AG and the ‘other’ R said is not the position of the Government but their personal opinions. I don’t think anyone has a clue about what the position of the Government is on this matter, so could you please tell us, Green Man?

Yours truly,
Punchi Putha
PS: In a way, Green Man, your Government is similar to the West Indian cricket team. No one is really sure who the captain is but the team shows a lot of promise at first and just when they get in to a winning position, they gift the game to the other side by running themselves out!