5th Column

My dear Green Man,
I thought I must write to you to congratulate you on completing forty years of uninterrupted service as a Member of Parliament – a distinction that, if memory serves me right, no one else in the present Parliament can claim, not even Mahinda maama, even though he entered Parliament before you.

There are only two others in the present Parliament who were elected in JR’s 1977 landslide: Sampanthan seeya and Gamini Jayawickrama. Sampanthan seeya forfeited his seat in ’83 over the 6th Amendment and Gamini left to take up the post of Chief Minister of Wayamba – so you are unique!

Of course, back in 1977, there was a saying that the Greens would have won even if they fielded a ‘polpiththa’ (or branch of a coconut tree) as a candidate. Your Uncle, JR, fielded you, his nephew, from what was sometimes called the Uncle Nephew Party at Biyagama. Needless to say, you won.

I hate to think that being your uncle’s nephew had something to do with it, but he did appoint you as the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs at the tender age of 28, as the understudy to the cigar smoking, globe-trotting, A.C.S. Hameed, who was perhaps better known as ‘All Countries Seen’.

From then onwards, it was only a hop, skip and a jump to the Cabinet. Since then, it has been a steady journey up the political ladder, although you have had your infamous moments as well. In politics, luck plays a large part as does being in the right place at the right time – and lucky you were!

That is how you became PM for the first time. When Preme was assassinated, Ranjan had been killed two years earlier by the Tigers, Lalith had suffered the same fate a week before and Gamini was in a different party. So, when Dearly Beloved became the boss, you were the default option for PM!

The tide though was turning in favour of the Blues and your term was short lived. However, even though Gamini wrested control of the Greens from you and became Opposition Leader, the Tigers eliminated him too – and you were back at the helm of the Green Party, which you are, to this day.

I don’t know whether you realise it, Green Man, but in the forty years that you have been in Parliament, you have the distinction of being PM the most times in this country. You have headed four governments as PM while the lovable Dudley was PM three times – as was the stubborn Sirima.

At the same time, you have also had the distinction- if you can call it that – of being our longest serving Opposition Leader, doing that job for no less than eighteen years, and no one else even comes close to that. I suppose you could be proud of that too, though some say it is not an achievement.

I think many will agree with me when I say that you must also be the most ridiculed politician this country has had. Your critics have lampooned the way you speak, the way you dress and even the way you clap or wave to the people. It must take a lot of character to stay in the game after all that.

However, what I wanted to point out to you, Green Man, is that previously whenever you were in office as PM, it was only for a short time. When Satellite was the boss she saw to it that you were ousted in a couple of years and even your first attempt at ‘yahapaalanaya’ was only a few months.

Now that you have a decent period of time as PM – which we assume will be five years, unless someone upsets the ‘yahapaalanaya’ apple cart – you must make the most of it and make good on all your promises. What I am worried about is, this simply does not seem to be happening at all.

They hoped Maithri and you would punish those who were corrupt, restore law and order, abolish the Presidency, bring about true reconciliation between our communities and improve the bank balance of the average Sri Lankan. So, you will agree that it has been a disappointing two years, Green Man.

Instead, what we have got is some from the same set of rogues sneaking back into the Cabinet, protests and strikes on a daily basis, Maithri’s henchmen hinting that he is running for President again, Gnanasaara thera inciting racial hatred and a bond scam which you insist never happened!

It is true that you have a ‘kenda heliya’ or a hodgepodge of a government with the Greens and Blues pulling in different directions with Maithri not knowing which way to turn, but remember, Green Man, people still want you to deliver on the key promises you made during your election campaign.

With a government that cannot deal with striking doctors or even dispose of garbage and ministers contradicting each other regularly, the day may not be far off when people say they would rather have Mahinda maama back, even if he acts like a king and his clan loots the country of all its wealth.

Green Man, we do wish you well but you must realise that although you have been in Parliament for forty years, history is yet to judge you. It is very likely that you will eventually be judged, not on what you have done in the last forty years but on what you do – or choose not to do – in the next three years.

Yours truly,
Punchi Putha
PS: You say that you want the Presidency abolished but having been PM under three different Presidents, surely you must be longing for the day when you get the job for yourself? And, it can’t be all that easy having to listen to Maithri during the day and having to listen to Maithree after work?