5th Column

My dear Maithri,
I thought I must write to you when I heard that you were at the centre of the latest controversy to hit our land. Yes, I am referring to your announcement that you want the death penalty reinstated for drug trafficking, especially for those persons who are found to be doing so even while behind bars.

To be honest, I was surprised when I heard you say that. We recall that although SWRD abolished the death penalty only to have it reinstated to hang his killer, JR effectively nullified it when he decreed that all future executions should be finally authorised by no less a person than the leader of the land.

Surely you must know that since then, not even the mightily powerful JR, the authoritarian Preme, nor even war-winning Mahinda maama had the courage to put anyone under the hangman’s noose. So, it baffles me when you, of all people, suddenly make this announcement about the death penalty.

Now, there are already some people who say that you could get nothing done during your term of office and that is why you want to do this so that you will go down in history as the person who did what no one else could do – just like Mahinda maama claiming that only he was able to win the war.

I am also not so sure, Maithri, whether you will really be able to implement the death penalty because, before you do implement your decision and hang someone, you will have to overcome a series of objections from every Mahanayake, Bishop, NGO and western country that you can imagine.

I am writing to you though, not to ask you to reconsider your decision. Instead, I am writing to you to ask you to reconsider who would be subject to the death penalty. What you said is that it will apply to drug traffickers who are repeat offenders, because they destroy the future generations of our country.

If your criteria are those who destroy the future generations of our country, Maithri, I would like you to consider applying the death penalty to some other groups of people. These include several types of politicians, businessmen, certain people involved in sport and even a few clergymen.

Although it may not seem like a great crime, you should consider applying the death penalty to those politicians who cross-over from one political party to another more than once and continue to be in power, no matter which party wins. I don’t want to mention names but we all know who they are.

You should also consider applying the death penalty to those politicians who are found guilty of corruption, or better still, those who cannot explain their massive wealth with their meagre salaries, and those who, when called upon to explain their assets, say ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I can’t remember’.

Then, maybe you should put to death all those politicians who use racist sentiments to incite clashes between our different communities, so they can win elections, both in the North and the South of the country. We have seen quite a few of them recently and, as elections near, we will see many more.

If those mentioned above have ruined our future generations, you will agree that businessmen, who fund politicians of all parties to the tune of millions, deserve the death penalty too. Our politicians may be corrupt, but those funding them in return for anticipated favours also deserve the same punishment.

It would be good if you can consider extending the death penalty to some of our sports administrators who have ruined games like cricket for generations to come because of their desire to control the game forever. Besides, imposing the death penalty might be the only way to get them out of office!

You may also consider the death penalty for those who, in the guise of being clergymen, claim to save their race and religion and incite people to take to violence against their fellow citizens. Again, we all know who they are but we hesitate to act against them simply because they wear a clergyman’s robe.

Of course, Maithri, imposing the death penalty even for those engaging in drug trafficking repeatedly will be a difficult task and, as the Field Marshal said, we will believe it can be done only when it is done. Still, if you want to save our future generations, think about those listed above as well.

Yours truly,
Punchi Putha
PS – At first, I thought that maybe we should also include those politicians who take voters for a ride by making solemn promises to gain their trust and then break them, such as abolishing the Presidency and running for office only once. But then, you can’t sign your own death warrant, can you, Maithri?