In and out from blue to green-- yon lies my quest! out

By Rypvanwinkle

My Dear Rauf,

I thought I must write to you when I heard that you and two of your colleagues had resigned from Parliament to contest the provincial council elections and would do so from the Green party and under the elephant symbol.

I know that these days you are being hailed as a saviour of democracy and praised to high heaven for sacrificing your seat in parliament and your position as a party leader in the House to contest a mere provincial council and that is commendable indeed.But, my dear Rauf, pardon me for being somewhat confused. I am a bit puzzled by what you have been doing over the past few years. After all, your late leader was a staunch supporter of the Green Iron Man who was impeached and we expected you would follow suit after your leader's death.

Nevertheless, when the Greens were thrown out of office and Satellite took the reins of power you bided your time for a while and then quite happily accepted a portfolio in her government, making many demands in the process. Those demands didn’t mean much to Satellite and we all remember how you walked out of Satellite’s cabinet a few months later, sparking off a chain of events that saw her calling for early elections that brought the Greens into power.

You did remain loyal to the Greens for a while, eagerly supporting the Green Man in his ill fated presidential election three years ago, hoping that he would win and that you would end up as a kingmaker. Of course, that was not to be because Mahinda maama won the narrowest of victories with a little help from Velu!

But that didn’t prevent you from gleefully taking on a portfolio in Mahinda maama’s jumbo cabinet a short while afterwards. But apparently you were not happy with what you got and you walked out again a few months later, and went straight back to the opposition benches.

All this only goes to show that you are giving Thonda (jnr.) a good run for his money as the country’s most opportunistic politician and some would even call you the most unprincipled politician after your latest somersault back into the Green camp. Of course, it takes two hands to clap and if you are being blamed for what you are doing, then both the Greens and the Blues must also be blamed for accepting you with open arms whenever you want to return to their fold.

Why, even in this last instance, we do know very well that you were wooed by both camps and you only went to the Greens because they promised you the Chief Minister’s post while Mahinda maama refused to give you any such undertaking!

Despite all this, I will agree that yours is a bold decision the consequences of which are already apparent-they now want to prune your security despite the courts ordering against it. So, I will concede that while you may be lacking in principles, you certainly have shown courage to do what you did.

I am sure, Rauf, you will realize that the battle has only begun. It would be an uphill task because too much is at stake in this election-and that includes the claims of those who say they have liberated the East from the Tiger.

So, do be careful in what you say and what you do. And please remember, you have nothing to lose-not even your reputation because you seem to have lost that already. If you lose the poll, you can always get someone else to resign and come right back to Parliament!

Yours truly,
Punchi Putha

PS-Of course, even if you win, we wouldn’t be surprised if you switch loyalties before long and start supporting Mahinda maama in return for a few suitable favours. That is the way you play the game and that is the way Mahinda maama plays the game as well, so why should we bother to complain?