5th Column

My dear Green Man,

I thought I would write to you because of what you recently said about the Greens, and also what Maithri appears to have said about you. I felt that they were both extremely important statements, and many people are concerned about them – so I thought I should let you know what people think.

Firstly, we heard you tell your party faithful that you have groomed a second tier of leaders for the Greens who will take over the party. Just when we thought what a great idea that would be, you also said that this would happen in 2030 – and that is what most people are concerned about.

Green Man, compared to the Blues, the Greens have always been better at grooming the next generation of leaders because the Blues were led for their entire first fifty years by someone from the ‘B’ clan. There is still a high possibility that they will be led for the next fifty years by the ‘R’ clan.

The Greens also started that way, with DS grooming Dudley to take over although there were many who were senior to him. That is why it was referred to as the ‘Uncle Nephew Party’ those days. However, when JR took over, he changed all that and ensured that there was a line of succession.

Many people blame JR for many flaws of his, but one good thing he did was to break the traditional mould of the Green leadership, allowing Preme to succeed him. There was also a great ‘second tier’ comprising of Lalith, Gamini, and even Ranjan, waiting in the wings, to take over thereafter.

The rest, as they say, is history. JR’s best laid plans never quite worked out because the Tigers eliminated all of them. The only person left standing was you, and that is how you became the leader of the Greens, after a brief period when Dearly Beloved was in charge, after Preme’s assassination.

With all due respect, Green Man, I don’t think JR planned for you to be leading the Greens so soon. I would guess he would have preferred for you to take over the Greens many years later. Ironically, the Greens had become the Uncle Nephew Party once again – because you were JR’s nephew!

With all that history behind you, Green Man, you, more than anyone else, should know the importance of grooming a second line of leadership. That is why eyebrows were raised when you said that this will happen in 2030 – which also means you will be in charge until you are 81 years of age!

You have been PM four times. The only other person who has such a record is Dudley. Like you though, Dudley served only one full term. His other periods in office were cut short for one reason or another. Green Man, being well past the official retirement age now, shouldn’t you call it quits soon?

Don’t get me wrong, Green Man. No one grudges you another shot at the top job in 2020. After all, when you ran for that job before, you were unlucky. Satellite had the sympathy vote after the bomb blast and the Tigers’ boycott ensured Mahinda maama’s victory. But 2020 should be your last chance.

Now, talking of high office and being PM, we also heard what Maithri had to say the other day. He was telling us that we should focus, not on who would be President in 2020, but on who would be PM, because it would be the PM who will be all powerful. What is more interesting is what he said next.

Maithri said we should ask ourselves whether our PM loves our country, whether he or she values our cultural values and our history, is able to understand the responsibilities of the job and is honest and not corrupt. He also said that we should ensure that we choose such a PM at the next election.

The question now on everyone’s lips, Green Man, is for Maithri to make such a statement, does he think that the PM he has now – who of course, is you – doesn’t meet those standards. I am not sure what the answer to that question is, but most people thought that at least Maithri himself felt that way.

Think about all of this, will you? Think also about grooming your next line of leaders. We all saw what happened to the Greens when Preme fought with Lalith and Gamini. With Preme’s and Gamini’s sons now in the Green line-up, we don’t want history repeating itself, do we, Green Man?

Yours truly,

Punchi Putha

PS – If, after hearing what Maithri said, you feel that Maithri is annoyed with you, I can tell you a little secret that will definitely win him over: just send him a bag of good quality peanuts. After all, it is not for nothing that there is a saying, ‘if you pay peanuts, you get monkeys’!