5th Column

My dear Green Man,
I didn’t think I will be writing to you again so soon but now I am because Mahinda maama’s chaps have submitted a motion of no-confidence against you. If they get that through Parliament you can lose the job you wanted so much after languishing for more than decade as the Opposition Leader.

You say that you are confident you will survive this latest challenge thrown at you. In fact, the Greens passed a vote of confidence for you the other day. If anything, the ‘training’ you have had in the Green party surviving challenges to your leadership should stand you in good stead now!

I do find it funny that Mahinda maama’s chaps have suddenly thought of ousting you from your job, just because they won the elections held for the local councils. After all, the Greens did come second best in most of the councils – and losing elections is not something extraordinary for you, is it?

If Mahinda maama was to apply the same standards, he should be trying to impeach Maithri, should he not? Despite Maithri going around the country saying he will swing his sword against anyone accused of corruption, his Blue team polled less than half the votes the Greens polled, did they not?

I don’t quite know why, Green Man, but you seem to be making a habit of becoming the second in command when the Blues are in charge – except that first time when Dearly Beloved became the boss. Invariably, you also seem to have problems with the Blue boss who is presiding at the time.

We remember those difficult years when Satellite was in charge and you were the second in command. You signed a ceasefire agreement with the tigers – written up by that GL chap who is now heading the ‘pohottuwa’ party- without so much as informing her and wasn’t she angry about that?

Satellite retaliated by sacking three of your ministers overnight while you were away in Washington. It was her brother Anura who tipped you off. The Greens wanted you to submit an impeachment motion against her to prevent her from dissolving Parliament. You refused – and she did just that.

With all that history behind you, one would have thought you would hardly be on speaking terms with each other but now you are the best of buddies, getting together to plot how to keep Mahinda maama out of power. Ah, what a difference it makes when your rivals happen to be her enemy as well!

You must have thought you will be better off with Maithri in the top job. If not for your help and the Green votes that he received, he would have been just another minister saying ‘yes, Sir’ to Mahinda maama. After you placed him on his pedestal, you would have expected him to be grateful.

Instead, he goes around appointing commissions into that Ravi chaps antics – which, by the way, is not a bad thing to do. However, he is not as keen to pursue cases about the Blue boys in Mahinda maama’s camp. On the contrary, he now wants to be friends with them. That is hardly being fair, is it?

Still, Green Man, you too must take some responsibility for what is happening right now. To start with, when the scandal in the big bank came to light, your response was to appoint some committee instead of getting rid of Ravi and Arjuna. In fact, you even tried to have Arjuna re-appointed!

After everything that happened, Ravi is still hanging around, making profound statements. You may feel some loyalty to him because he stood by you when Karu and Sajith ran against you for the top jobs in the party, but if you don’t get rid of him, you can kiss goodbye to winning the next election.

You and the Greens were given a slap in the face by the voters at the recent election. You yourself said it was a ‘wake up call’. You promised you would make changes. Yet, when the Cabinet was reshuffled all we saw was Kabir and Lucky exchanging chairs like kindergarten children.

Then, there was talk about making changes to the Green party. Again, you appointed a committee to look into it. They say they have made some recommendations. As far as the voters are concerned, they don’t care about your committees, they want to see that change – and there is nothing to see so far.

So, Green Man, for most people the issue is not whether you survive this motion of no confidence or not. With your survival skills, there is a high chance that you will. The real issue is whether, after four tries at being the PM, and not having much to show for it, they still have confidence in you!

Yours truly,
Punchi Putha
PS: Green Man, I almost forgot to wish you for your 69th birthday. We hope that there will be many happy returns of the day. Did you realise that you are still the one and only PM we have had who was born after we obtained independence? So, it will be only be fitting if you could make our country truly independent, where we are not dependent on others anymore. Or, is it too late to ask for that now?