Young rebel with a cause

5th Column

I thought of writing to you when I heard that you were staging a protest campaign in the hill country, paralyzing the tea estates and thereby draining the precious little foreign exchange that we earn these days.

I could have dismissed you as a poor imitation of your grandfather, trying to get some publicity for yourself but then, they tell me you have been carrying on for some weeks now, asking for a four hundred rupee wage hike for 'your people'.

Why, Thonda, didn't you hear the professor tell us during the budget that there would be no more wage hikes this year despite the rising price of the dollar, electricity, transport, food and whatever else you care to buy?

Why, Thonda, didn't Satellite tell you, like she told the rest of the country that this is the time for sacrifice and war and not the time to be staging strikes and asking for pay hikes?

Why, just before the budget she told everyone that the budget will bring some relief to the people but that also turned out to be like all her other promises. So, she cannot now give 'your people' a four hundred-rupee pay hike and ignore the rest of the country, can she?

Then, I heard that you were threatening to resign from the cabinet, if you didn't get your demands. We've heard that one before, Thonda but we have seen no one honour such threats in recent times. It matters little now whether we have forty-two ministers or forty-one ministers.

We know Thonda that you are trying to imitate your grandfather but you must understand that you cannot do in five years what he did in five decades. Trying to be a young man in a hurry can be dangerous because we hear that there are so many challengers to your leadership from within your own ranks.

Then, Thonda, what are all these reports about estate administrators being threatened and their homes being surrounded, placing them under virtual house arrest? Is that part of the non-violent protest preached so much by your departed grandfather? How can you justify that with your demand for a higher wage?

I hope Thonda that you realize you are playing with fire. It is very easy for the hill country to turn into another North and East- especially with politicians playing games with the lives of people they claim to represent.

So, think about all what you have done in the past few weeks and what your grandfather would have done if he had been around. Now that the battle is over for the time being, it will be useful for you to cast your mind back to how the Grand master would have played the game.

Yours truly, 
Punchi Putha.

PS- By the way, you were among those who didn't want the Tigers banned in Britain. Why is that, Thonda? Is it real sympathy or some kind of life insurance policy?

Rajpal Abeynayake's Column

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