5th Column

My dear Green Man,

I thought I must write to you because you are in the news once again after many months, entering Parliament as the only Green MP. It must have been a surreal experience for you to take oaths as a mere MP, when you have been Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition for over two decades.

I am sure there must have been many MPs, especially of the formerly Green but now Yellowish Green variety, who must have been thinking that they had at last got rid of you. Then, just when they thought it was safe to go back to Parliament, there you are, re-emerging like a familiar nightmare!

Anyway, Green Man, the question many are asking is why you returned to Parliament at this time as the sole representative of the Green Party after they were annihilated at the last elections. Surely, the talk at the time was that you would quietly retire, allowing the next generation to gradually take over.

Then, there was also this rule that you had imposed for those of the Green Party. Even though three score and a dozen years in age, Green Man, I am sure your memory still serves you well, and you will recall saying no candidate who was defeated at the elections would be appointed on the National List.

It looks like you are not adhering to the rules you yourself set – or is it that these are desperate times which need desperate measures? Honestly, Green Man, most people think that the Greens couldn’t agree on whom they should nominate because there was only one slot. Is that why they chose you?

The frontrunners from among those who remained were Ravi, Ruwan and Naveen. Ravi would have been a disaster because of his ‘maha banku hora’ tag, giving it to Ruwan would have led to claims of nepotism, and I am not sure you trust Naveen that much because of whose son and son-in-law he is!

Then you have those who are very loyal to you such as Vajira, Akhila and Sagala. The problem with them is that, that is their only virtue. They are otherwise useless as politicians – or even as debaters in Parliament. So, after 10 months in limbo, the Green Party scraped the barrel – and they found you!

Please don’t misunderstand me, Green Man. If I am not mistaken, you are the most experienced parliamentarian in the House now, having spent almost 44 years in it. Not even Mahinda maama can match that. Your contributions will be better than that of all those mentioned before.

You proved that with your ‘maiden’ speech in the current Parliament, exposing precisely what is wrong with the way the country was being governed arguing the military was being given too much authority. You wanted the Cabinet to take the lead. Even Mahinda maama must have been secretly thankful!

In that sense, you are certainly the most suitable person from the Green Party to take the single slot that is available. However, the more important question is where that will lead the Green Party and what its future would be – at a time when it has been reduced to virtually nothing at the last elections.

After that disastrous poll, we first heard that you wanted to retire. Then, after Ruwan was appointed No.2, we were told that the Greens will have a new leader in the New Year. The next we heard was that you would stay on until the party was ‘restructured’. None of this has come to pass yet, has it?

The Greens have been out of Parliament for eight months and, as a result, out of the minds of most voters. Young Sajith and those who decamped with him to the Yellowish Green brigade have stolen your thunder. That is why, Green Man, it is difficult to understand what you gain by your ‘comeback’.

More worrying is the speculation that your presence will divide the opposition. We have heard that some of your loyal lieutenants have been talking to Sajith’s men and women to see whether they are ripe for the picking. That is why they got together and hurriedly passed a vote-of-confidence on Sajith.

We can all agree that young Sajith has made several blunders and hasn’t been quite up to the mark in leading the opposition. Yet, if you derail him now it will only ruin the ‘telephone’ party and there can only by one winner in such a situation – the only question will be, which ‘R’ will it be – M, G or B?

Given your long familial ties to the Green Party, I would have thought that the best way forward would be to work out an amicable arrangement between the Greens and the Yellowish Greens to support each other. After all, not so long ago, you were in the same party fighting the same cause.

Green Man, you have a reputation as a survivor. You have had opportunities, more than any other, to rise to the very top, but you haven’t. Is this then your last attempt to achieve that, like the now famous King Manawamma you mentioned in a recent interview? That is what we would really like to know.

Yours truly,

Punchi Putha

PS: We noticed that, after taking your oaths in the House and walking to your seat, you stayed mostly on the government’s side, before greeting Mahinda maama and crossing over to the opposition’s side. There was no greeting for Sajith though. We hope this is not a sign of things to come, Green Man!