5th Column

My dear Gota maamey,

I thought I must write to you after listening to you speaking to us in an ‘address to the nation’ last week, and seeing the reaction to that from the citizens of Paradise. Most people were very angry. Others didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry. That speech won’t go down as a highlight of your career.

Many wanted to know who wrote that speech. That is because we assume you did not write it yourself. We wondered whether it was written by one of your greatest enemies, because it sounded like that. We also wondered whether you took the time to read that speech before you addressed us.

After all, it was only a day before your speech that the ‘telephone’ chaps staged that big commotion outside your office. I am not sure whether you were in your office that day, but if you were, and cared to open your office windows, you would have seen and heard what people said and how angry they were.

If you had done that, you would have also known that addressing the nation a day later would have provided you with the perfect opportunity to make amends. You could have acknowledged the difficulties people face, instead of the ‘saubhaagye dekma’ or ‘visions of prosperity’ you promised.

You could have explained your side of the story and the challenges you faced. You certainly should have owned up to the mistakes you made. If you did, some may have accepted what you said in good faith. With three years left of your term of office, they may even have been willing to wait until then.

What we heard in your address to the nation was something very different, however. You began by saying “mema arbudaya maa visin nirmaanaya karana laddak nowey” or “this is not a crisis created by me”. In effect, you are telling us that nothing of what is happening to our country today is your fault.

I don’t know whether you can remember, Gota maamey, during the first stages of the coronavirus pandemic, when you shut down the country and had the number of cases well under control, you told us ‘api thamai hondatama keruwe’ or ‘we did it the best’- and that was indeed true, at least at that time.

However, when the advice of medical experts was later ignored and the pandemic went out of control, people turned against you and mocked your claim of ‘api thamai hondatama keruwe’. Later, when prices began to escalate and the dollar jumped past the Rs250 mark, they quoted this back to you.

Right now, much the same is happening with your latest remarks. I am not sure whether you know about this, but in offices and homes everywhere in the country, when anything goes wrong, people are mockingly quoting the words of their Head of State and saying they are not taking any responsibility.

Gota maamey, 6.9 million people (who are difficult to find now) elected you. They voted again allowing you to pass the 20th Amendment so that you became all powerful, even more than JR ever was. Haven’t you heard that with great power comes great responsibility? So, the buck stops with you.

A major part of our current crisis is the high price of food. The main reason for that is your stubborn decision to replace chemical fertiliser with the organic type, almost overnight, without listening to the experts. Are you trying to say that it was not your decision, and shift all the blame on Mahindananda?

The other reason for the crisis we find ourselves in is the poor economic management. Many people predicted this and offered solutions, but they were ignored. Those who were primarily responsible for those policy decisions are Basil maama and that chap Cabraal. You appointed them.

You also contradicted what you yourself said. First you said that this is a crisis engulfing the ‘entire world’ due to the pandemic. Later on, you said that its ‘root cause’ is a foreign exchange crisis. Yes, the pandemic engulfed the entire world, but most countries do not have a foreign exchange crisis, do they?

You gave us a long list of figures about billions of dollars spent on this, that and the other. I don’t think that impressed people who were trying to find a few hundred rupees to survive for the day. Then you said you had decided to invite the IMF. Wasn’t that what some people were saying a long time ago?

You had a parting shot too. In conclusion, you said that you entered politics only because you were invited to do so. My recollection is somewhat different. You announced your candidacy soon after the Easter attacks. You even fought a legal challenge about your dual citizenship to secure that candidacy.

A few may have wanted you to run for the top job, but you make it sound as if you are where you are not because you wanted to be there but only because people invited you to take it on. Does that mean that if people want you leave, you will leave as well – because right now, there are many who do!

So, Gota maamey, it doesn’t really help when you address the nation and tell us, amidst all the problems we face, that they were not created by you and you took on your job only because you were invited. Either you should change your speech writer – or change how you think – in the next three years.

Yours truly,

Punchi Putha

PS: While you were speaking to the nation, we saw photos of young Namal in the Maldives, emerging on water jets. He looked like the ‘naya’ who emerged from the Kelani River to predict your win. If this is a sign of things to come, it will be curtains for you at the next election, won’t it, Gota maamey?