5th Column

My dear Mahinda maama,

I thought I must write to you after some time when I heard that you are about to launch a new political party that would challenge the Blues, the Greens and even the Reds. This is despite having been a Blue party man all your life. You are certainly taking a bold new step in a very different direction!

I suppose you must be now realising that this is all happening because you handed over the leadership of the Blues to Maithri after he won the election, defeating you. He says he never asked for it and you tell a different story but the fact is that it was something that you did, that has come back to haunt you.

That is because after you won your first election many years ago, you wanted to get rid of Satellite and take control of the Blue party. So, you passed a clause which said that if someone was the leader of the country, he or she would automatically lead the party. Ah, how karma finds a way to beat you!

Having been in the thick of things in politics for almost fifty years now, you must surely know that every political party has had someone going away and forming their own party but no one has really succeeded or lasted that long, often returning to their original parties to complete their political work.

In the early seventies there was a young man called Premadasa who was having differences with his party leader, Dudley. So, he went and formed a party which he called the ‘Puravesi Peramuna’. Few people even remember that party now although Preme returned to lead the Greens and then the nation.

In the late seventies there was another young man who was in a hurry: Vasu. He left the Reds and formed his own party. He is still around but he has not done much either for himself or for his country except display his mastery of the Sinhala language to school children visiting the Diyawanna House.

In the eighties when you were not in Parliament, we had Vijaya and Satellite break away from the Blue Party after a fight with Queen Bee. They formed the Purple party. Vijaya was killed and Satellite went into exile – only to return and the lead the country later but that again was with the Blues.

The biggest shock came when Preme got a taste of his own medicine. He ignored Lalith and Gamini for the number two job. They went off on their own and formed the Eagle party to challenge him. The resulting division in the Greens allowed the Blues to return and stay in power for many years.

Thereafter, even the much smaller parties seem to have caught this disease. Why, Wimal sahodaraya fell for Mahinda maama’s charms and left the Bell party to form his own outfit. That proved costly for him because had he remained with them, surely he would have succeeded Somawansa as their leader.

Then we even had ‘hundred-rupee’ Udaya separating from the Hela Urumaya to form his own little party. Its supporters could probably fit in to a few three-wheelers but to his credit, Udaya acts as if he is the next leader of the country and has something to say about anything and everything.

What all this tells us, Mahinda maama, is that none of the people who left their parties made it big on their own. Those who did only succeeded when they forgot their differences and returned to their old parties. Others have been ‘also rans’ in the political race and have never realised their true potential.

The exception to this has of course been SWRD, who broke away from the Greens to form the Blues and won an election sixty years ago. That though was when only the Greens dominated the country and there was no other party to challenge them except maybe a few Reds. Things are different now.

In fact, the only person who led the country, then broke away from the main parties and tried to go his own way was Daha from Galle. He never made it to the top again. I think there is a lesson for you to learn there: once you have been the big boss, it is time to leave gracefully, rather than hang around.

Think about all this, Mahinda maama. I know hope springs eternal but I really don’t think history favours you returning to power from another party. As for trying to return to the Blues in the future and trying to be the boss once more, at seventy years of age, don’t you think that will take some time?

Yours truly,
Punchi Putha

 PS: SB told us the other day that if and when you do form another party, Basil will be its President and Pavithra will be its secretary. Of course, with friends like these, you don’t need enemies but what would you call the new party, Mahinda maama, would it be ‘Ali Baba and the forty thieves’?