5th Column

Satellite, all await your next move
My Dear Satellite,
I thought I must write to you after seeing you writing letters to everyone complaining about this, that and the other.

The tone of these letters, Satellite, seems to suggest that although you are technically the Boss, you are no longer in control over what is happening in this land of ours.
On the one hand, we have the Green Man running circles around you and submitting proposals to the Tigers who seem to be surprisingly unwilling to reject them right away.

Then we have the railways being converted into an Authority overnight though you are not pleased about that either. And then there are so many other matters like taxes and distributing land that you don't see eye to eye with the Greens but they are going about their business anyway.

As if that were not enough, you still haven't been able to strike a deal with the Rathu Sahodarayas even though that may not be the best of ideas, I daresay. And, we also hear that you are no closer to solving the leadership battle among the Blues with battle lines being very clearly drawn between Mallo and the Southerner.

I am almost sure that on that issue, although your head says that the Southerner is more deserving and probably more capable, your heart says that you should support Mallo's claim.

What all this means, Satellite, is that even though you are nominally the Chief with all those near-total powers at your disposal you are in fact more of a Commander-in-Mischief rather than the Queen of the country.

But given your track record, Satellite, I am sure all is not lost. I say so because you seem to be wooing all the right people-disgruntled Greens, Arumugam and even some low-ranking Tigers, all in the hope of staging a Palace coup and taking control.

This may not be the best form of democracy, I agree. But then you could say that the Greens did much the same by getting Rauff out first and then engineering that walk-out by Seeni Bola, the Professor and Mahinda though in hindsight they must surely be feeling that they could have done without the latter!

But as you must have realised by now in your dealings with the Rathu Sahodarayas, nothing in politics is certain until the deal is done and as we all know nothing surprising has materialised yet.
So, we all await your next move with great anticipation though you could expect the Green Man to have a few tricks of his own up his sleeve. In the meantime while the Greens, Blues, Reds and the Tigers play their little games the country and its unfortunate people will continue to suffer but then, that is not really your problem is it, because at the end of it all, you could happily blame it all on the Greens!

Yours truly,
Punchi Putha
PS- We know you are talking to disgruntled Greens and trying to win them over to your side. But I hope your former pal Seeni Bola is not among them, even though he is not happy with his adopted party these days. After all, we don't want to spoil our chances at the next Olympics, do we?

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