5th Column

My dear Voter,

I thought I must write to you today because, three days from now, you will be entrusted with the task of choosing those who govern us for the next five years. It is a responsibility that comes your way once in a while and it is your duty to exercise it with great care, so that you won’t regret it later.

This election is a bit different, thanks to the coronavirus and ‘social distancing’. Maco is complaining that it is the most expensive election ever, but at the same time he is asking us to bring our own pens if possible, to mark that cross. I suppose he is trying his best to save on expenses and every bit counts.

Thanks to the coronavirus though, we have been spared of the mass rallies where thousands of people gather to listen to politicians making the most wonderful promises, only to break them over the next five years. Some did still turn up at our doorsteps – but that has been only a minor inconvenience.

I feel sorry for you, dear Voter, because your choices are rather limited. Even if you think Gota maama has done a decent job over the past few months, you could be having your doubts about voting for the ‘pohottuwa’ because the people on their lists are not exactly his type of men and women.

Gota maama promised to change the ‘system’ and do things his way. That was how he dealt with the coronavirus. Yet, among the candidates of the ‘pohottuwa’ we see the same people who were accused of bribery, corruption, abuse of power and being above the law.

If you look a little closer at the ‘pohottuwa’ list, you will also see a few names that are from the Blue party, that is all but extinct now. When you realise that these are the chaps who were screaming and telling us just a few months ago that the ‘pohottuwa’ was evil, you realise how senseless all this is.

Why, even Cheerio Sirisena, who at the last election of a similar type vowed he will never appoint Mahinda maama as his PM, is now running on the ‘pohottuwa’ ticket from Polonnaruwa. We are told that he wants to achieve something for his people as an MP – something he couldn’t do as President!

If that makes you feel like voting for the Greens, you look around and see that the Greens hardly exist anymore. Most of them have packed their bags and left Sirikotha with Sajith. Those who are left are those linked with bond scams and they are staying because they feel the leader will finally have to go.

The Greens replaced the Blues promising us ‘yahapaalanaya’. What we got instead was a bond scam, a terror attack and a leader who, after 26 years of leading the Greens into dozens of election defeats wants yet more time to put things right. If you still want to vote for them, good luck to you!

If you are thinking of an alternative, you may think of Sajith and his telephone chaps. To be fair, they have had little time to get themselves organised because they formed their outfit during the coronavirus outbreak. Interestingly, their harshest critics are not the ‘pohottuwa’ chaps but the Greens.

Still, the only difference between them and the Greens is their choice of leader. Sajith may have a future ahead of him, but he or those around him haven’t shown us anything spectacular – apart from a promise of 20,000 rupees – that inspires great confidence in them over and above the rest of the pack.

Then you also wonder about the rathu sahodarayas. They have been great critics of past governments and they haven’t been tainted with corruption either. Yet, when it comes to elections, not many voters place their faith in them. Why, Anura sahodaraya polled all of three percent at the big race last year!

Amidst all this both Gota maama and Mahinda maama are going around asking you to vote for them, saying they need a two-thirds majority because they want to tinker with the Constitution and get rid of that 19th Amendment. That to me, dear voter, is a worrying thought and I will tell you why.

When we gave Sirima a two-thirds majority in 1970, she extended the life of Parliament by two years without holding an election. When we gave JR a two-thirds majority in 1977, he extended the life of that Parliament by six years after holding a referendum. So, after being twice bitten, I am thrice shy.

We didn’t give Mahinda maama a two-thirds majority in 2010 but he begged, borrowed and stole a dozen MPs and created one. He then went on to change the Constitution so he can contest again and again. Those changes have now been reversed but don’t they say that old habits die hard?

Think about all this, dear Voter. The choices before you are limited and probably not the best but you still have to make a wise decision on Wednesday. They say that every country gets the government it deserves – but you need to make sure that we also get the opposition that we so desperately need!

Yours truly,

Punchi Putha

PS: You could close your ears and vote for the rathu sahodarayas because all they do is shout. Or, you could close your nose and vote for the Greens, ignoring the stench from the mess they created. You could also close your eyes and vote for the ‘telephone’ because we don’t know where they will take us. And, if you vote for the ‘pohottuwa’, you might have to keep your mouth shut anyway!