On the-job-training - best way to run the country

By Rypvanwinkle

My dear Mahinda maama,

I thought I must write to you first in the New Year, not only to wish you a 'suba aluth avuruddak' but also to let you know about a few issues that have concerned many people in the last few weeks.

We know, Mahinda maama that you are to be congratulated for your handling of the domestic political environment. You seem to have killed two birds with one stone by entering into an agreement with the Greens which is as useless as the ceasefire with the Tigers. But at least, it ensures that the Green Man is still in charge of the elephants, which of course is good for you because that chap is more in Tanzania than in Tissamaharama!

Then, you also took the 'wansas'- Somey and Weeray - for a ride, using them cleverly on your election platform and then discarding them once you got to Temple Trees. The fact is that having so eagerly supported you barely a year ago, they cannot now suddenly sing a different tune-so you have them well and truly under control!

But, Mahinda maama, what you must also remember is that despite the considerable skills you have displayed in controlling the political theatre, you have been equally incompetent in dealing with the other ills that plague our country - the war in the North and East and the battle against the rising cost of living.

There will be those who argue that you are in fact winning the war in the East and that therefore you should be allowed to pursue the same strategy in the North. While most would agree that the Velu and his Tigers should be dealt with militarily there is a crying need for reasonable redistribution of power to the minorities. You more than any other now have a chance to do so because the Greens are willing to support you on this, but we don't see any urgency on your part. Why is that, Mahinda maama?
Then, Mahinda maama, you need to do some serious thinking about the economic problems people are facing. In case those chaps Nivaard and P.B. haven't told you, inflation is rampant and the average citizen is finding it hard to make ends meet because among other things, he has to support a gigantic Cabinet that regularly grant themselves massive pay hikes!

And, while there was some noise about the Cabinet being pruned to thirty five ministers, that has not happened yet and all that we are hearing is that more and more green elephants are willing to cross-over to your side in return for some measly portfolio. Our question, Mahinda maama, is how you would reconcile all this with the solemn promises you made in that book titled the 'Mahinda Chinthana' which you seem to have to forgotten now…

But then, you have other things to do. For instance, you ban smoking in public places and hope that it will rid the country of that menace. Then you decide that all private buses should issue tickets and decide to fine them if they don't. And now you have decreed that 'silly-silly' bags should also be banned. All this just makes us wonder, Mahinda maama, whether introducing a new law for everything is your solution to all our country's problems.

But then, we know that you are learning on the job. So, all we can hope for at the moment is that you would be an improvement on your predecessor who learnt little during eleven years of on-the-job training. So we must wish you well…

Yours truly,
Punchi Putha

PS-And what is this big idea of a new airline, Mahinda maama? And is it just co-incidence that it is called Mihin Air? Well, the 'B's get the airport named after them and the 'R's get the airline named after them, so it kind of makes it even, doesn't it?