5th Column

Aiyo Sirisena,

I thought I must write to you when I heard that you want to run for the top job again and that you are still hopeful that the ‘pohottuwa’ chaps will support your campaign just like the Greens did four years ago. Honestly, I didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry, but there are a few issues I wanted to clarify.

I am aware that neither the Blues, the Greens or the ‘pohottuwa’ chaps have formally declared their candidates for the big race yet but whenever Basil or Mahinda maama are asked who their nominee would be, they say it will be someone ‘who can win’. What they are saying is that it is not you!

We can’t blame them either. The person we elected was a meek ‘Gramasevaka’ who promised to abolish the Presidency and return to farming in Polonnaruwa after five years. What we got instead was an emperor who is trying every trick in the book to stay in power for the next five years.

The chap the country voted for was a humble fellow who won the hearts of people by promising to get rid of the excesses of Mahinda maama’s last government. What we got instead was someone who violated the Constitution and re-appointed Mahinda maama, so that he could get his support again.

Given this track record, is it surprising that Basil and Mahinda maama don’t want to endorse you? They must know that you can do to them what you did to the Green Man – get their support to get elected and then do as you please, ignoring convention and the Constitution – and creating confusion!

Why, just last week, you were planning to send your own team to that meeting in Geneva where they discuss our human rights record while our Foreign Ministry would have sent their own set of officials. The Eelamists would have then had the last laugh because it would have been like two separate states!

You wanted Mahinda Sam to represent you and praise our war heroes so you could be a hero to local voters. It didn’t matter to you that, with one nation sending two teams, we would become the laughing stock of the world.

Mahinda Sam said he was the best person to lead us at Geneva because he had done so for 10 years – but that is as good as the Green Man saying he is the best person to lead the Greens because he has done so for 25 years. Fortunately, sanity prevailed in the end and we had one delegation!

Of course, even if you got your way and there were two delegations representing us, no one would have been surprised. Thanks to you, first we had two Prime Ministers, then we had two Opposition Leaders, so why should anyone be concerned about two delegations representing us in Geneva?

That is not the only time you were flexing your muscles and spoiling for a fight. You are forever complaining against the Council that Karu heads, saying they are not allowing you to make appointments to the bench the way you want to – but wasn’t that the very purpose of that Council?

Having had your nominees rejected repeatedly, you have now appointed someone in an ‘acting’ capacity to one of the courts. Many ask whether you can do so, but we shouldn’t be surprised because when you asked for our vote four years ago, you were also acting – and you did so very well!

Even as you were trying to show the Greens who the boss was, the Greens were also trying to teach you a lesson. So, some of them were threatening to vote against allocating you any money from the Budget. Had that happened, Aiyo Sirisena, many would have said that you deserved no better.

What you don’t perhaps realise, Aiyo Sirisena, is that with most of your decisions aimed at deviously undermining what the Greens do, this country is not going anywhere. The Greens have not lived up to expectations and they too must share the blame but you have also been a boss like no other!

Nothing is certain in politics but we can certainly say that you will be what you promised to be: a one term boss. Make the most of it while you can. That doesn’t mean you need to go on safari while in Kenya to see wildlife – you have already been to the House by the Diyawanna Oya, haven’t you?

Yours truly,

Punchi Putha

PS: Your desire to send Mahinda Sam to Geneva reminded me that there are too many ‘MS’s in this government. There is Mahinda Sam, Mangala Sam and Malik Sam – and then of course, there is you. And, like the dear departed ‘baila chakravarthi’ ‘MS’ who sang ‘baila’, all of you sing ‘baila’ too – but there are no prizes for guessing who, among the four of you, is the ‘baila chakravarthi’!