5th Column

My dear Wijey,
I thought I must write to you because you are very much in the news these days, offering legal advice and opinions, boasting about how you had prevented certain people from being arrested and trying to sue other people for hundreds of millions of rupees. You are one busy man!

Wijey, we had this image of you being a thorough professional and a decent man in the dark and dirty world of politics. I think you first caught our attention when you headed COPE and was critical of government institutions although you were part and parcel of the Government, being in the Blue party.

The Green party, which was in the opposition then, loved you because you were not afraid to point out corruption in high places. You even declined to accept a Cabinet portfolio when Mahinda maama offered you the job of being Minister of Constitutional Affairs. How times have changed since then!

You then left the Blue party and joined the Greens and the opposition ranks. You remained there until Maithri was voted in to office in January. When the Greens were fighting among themselves and trying to figure out who should be the leader, you were firmly on the Green Man’s side.

You happened to be the boss of the legal eagles. You did make some noises of protest at that time but many people thought you didn’t do enough, probably because the Greens too didn’t also put up much of a fight against it.

Perhaps as a reward for your loyalty to him and perhaps because of your legal background you were given a plum job by the Green Man and asked to look after the halls of justice. Given your past track record we hoped that under you, our justice system will regain the respect and dignity it once enjoyed.

I don’t know what it is with this subject, Wijey, because before you, we had Professor Geneva Losing being given the same job. He too was a respected academic until he took on this portfolio and then he seemed to lose his marbles and began changing colours and singing different tunes at different times.

Now, some people are saying that the same malady seemed to have affected you too. That is after they heard you saying, with some degree of pride that you were responsible for preventing Gota from being arrested over the same issue that saw poor old Tilak suddenly lose his ministerial job.

I do not know Wijey whether, during your long years of legal training you have heard the saying that justice must not only be done, it must also appear to be done. Now, I don’t have clue as to whether justice was done or not in this instance but many thought that it certainly didn’t appear to be done.

If I remember right, we ousted Mahinda maama and brought Maithri to sit on that chair because we felt that Mahinda maama and his cronies were interfering with everything — which included the judiciary. But even they didn’t go around saying that they prevented anyone from being arrested!

Tilak did worse than you did by defending his private clients in Parliament. Being a senior in legal circles and a former AG he should have known better but then, he did the next best thing thereafter: he fell on his sword and resigned, when he could have spent his retirement years as a minister!

You haven’t done that yet but if you were to do so, no one would be surprised. That is why, when we heard that the Green Man has rebuked a senior minister, everyone just assumed that it was you. You have said he didn’t but then, that too could be a matter of opinion, couldn’t it, Wijey?

You didn’t impress us any further when you then got in to a slanging match with the Field Marshall, calling him a ‘vel vidaanay’ and demanding millions of rupees in compensation for something he said. You are lucky that being a President’s Counsel or ‘PC’, he didn’t call you a Police Constable!

Think about all this, will you Wijey? Unlike Tilak, you are still young in politics and I sure you have ambitions greater than becoming a mere minister in charge of justice. And, if I were you, I would take serious note of the fact that if the Green Man could ask Tilak to resign, he could ask you too!

Yours truly,
Punchi Putha
PS: If I were you, I would lie low, Wijey. We in this country have a tradition of forgiving and forgetting and letting bygones be bygones, especially when it is about our politicians. Remember, we sent another ‘R’ from Hambantota home less than a year ago and now many people want him back!