5th Column

My dear Members of the Diyawanna Council,

I thought I must write to you to congratulate you on what you achieved this week. On Friday, you passed yet another amendment to our Constitution. We are told this will reduce the powers of your big boss and give you more of a say in running Paradise, though that has done little for us all these years. 

The other reason why I am writing to you now, dear Members, is also because I am a bit confused about all this tinkering with our Constitution, especially in recent years. After all, we have had some 21 amendments over 44 years. That amounts to about an amendment every two years!

What I am concerned, and even more confused, about is that all the recent amendments are about the powers of the big boss. First we reduce them, then we increase them, then we decrease them again, only to enhance them again. Now, we have curtailed them again. All this, in the name of democracy!

It was Satellite who started all this. 20 years ago, she said she will abolish the post of the ‘big boss’ when she won that office. She never did. She did introduce the 17th Amendment reducing some of its powers.

That was by creating a Council which appoints ‘independent’ commissions which decides who gets the top jobs in Paradise. This Council didn’t function well. A decade later, when Mahinda maama won a second term, he abolished that with an 18th amendment that also allowed him to run for a third time.

That was to be his undoing because he did run for a third term, only to lose to Aiyo Sirisena. Whatever his faults, Aiyo Sirisena brought the 19th Amendment that reduced his own powers. He must have regretted that because he used powers he didn’t have to sack Uncle Ranil and dissolve Parliament.

Aiyo Sirisena was reprimanded by the highest court for this, but his lapses on the Easter attacks led Gota maama to capitalise on that and call for more powers for the big boss with the 20th Amendment. That sailed through, but we know how that excessive power ended when Gota maama had to flee.

Few remember now that the amendment you passed on Friday was what Gota maama requested Justice Wijey – also known as ‘Deal Dasa’ – to prepare. That was when protestors of the ‘aragalaya’ were at his doorstep demanding the abolition of his office. That wasn’t enough to save him, though.

Since the Diyawanna Council has people who have been there for decades – who we cannot get rid of – I’m sure there are those among you who have voted for the 17th, 19th and 22nd Amendments to reduce the big boss’s powers but also for the 18th and 20th Amendments to increase those same powers!

That is why most people are sceptical about what laws you pass in your Council. To many, it seems as if you do what is politically opportunistic at that time, regardless of the consequences. Still, what happened in your Council on Friday does raise some interesting possibilities in the coming months.

For instance, some 45 of you, mostly from the ‘pohottuwa’ camp were absent at voting time. That included Mahinda maama as well the ruling party’s Chief Whip Prasanna and Secretary Sagara. It does look like Basil maama has pulled some strings from far away in his adoptive motherland.

The Amendment means Basil maama won’t be able to return and a few others who are already in the Council may also have to leave. If only for this reason, we thought the ‘pohottuwa’ chaps will follow Basil maama’s instructions and vote against the amendment, but that didn’t happen, did it?

Does it mean that Basil maama is losing his grip on the ‘pohottuwa’? Is it that the ‘pohottuwa’ chaps, sensing that the ship is sinking, have decided to take Uncle Ranil’s side? Or, is it that Justice Wijey has been working his magic on some of you – it is not for nothing that he is known as ‘Deal Dasa’!

In fact, we didn’t quite believe it when Justice Wijey told us confidently that he will see the amendment through Parliament. To give credit where it is due, though Uncle Ranil was not very good at winning elections for his Green Party, he is proving himself at winning contests in Parliament.

Members of the Diyawanna Council, we know that what was passed on Friday is not the final solution to all our problems, but it is still a step in the right direction. It also allows Uncle Ranil to dissolve Parliament in a few months. I hope you realised that as well when you cast your vote on Friday!

Yours truly,

Punchi Putha

PS: The amendment that was passed prevents Basil maama from returning to active politics soon. So, people are now asking whether Uncle Ranil hoodwinked all of us – including Mahinda maama – into believing that he was ‘Ranil Rajapaksa’ when in fact, he was not? So, is it now ‘Bye, Bye Basil’?