My Dear Sajith,
I thought I must write to you when I heard that you had reportedly admitted that you were not mature enough to become the leader of your party and that you were willing to learn. I heard that you had said so in response to advice given to you by the Mahanayake theras.
Honestly, Sajith, I was not quite certain whether all this was true-because it sounds too good to be true! However, I haven’t heard you denying this since this appeared in the media, so I will assume that it is indeed true until I hear otherwise.
If you are really keen on learning, Sajith, the good news is that you don’t have to look very far for examples. There are plenty of them in your own party itself, from people you will be able to easily recall.
I think a skill that you must learn, Sajith, is patience. There is no better example of that than JR who waited until he was in his mid-sixties to assume the party leadership. He was seventy one when he became leader of the country. In those terms, you are still a political baby, aren’t you?
Why, even your father was sixty five when he became leader of the party and the country. Even Mahinda maama got to those positions when he was sixty. So I hope you would have realised that the message is, there is no need to always be an angry young man in a hurry.
If you consider more recent history, Sajith, Satellite became the leader of her party and the country when she was only forty nine years old and the Green Man first became the Prime Minister when he was only forty four-and you can hardly say that they did a good job, can you?
Now, don’t get me wrong, Sajith. There are things to learn from the Green Man too. He has his faults-and quite a bagful of them-but I don’t think anyone can accuse him of being disloyal to the party leadership at any time.
At first, he was loyal to JR and then he was faithful to your father, which is the reason why your father was able to survive the impeachment motion moved against him. Then, when Dearly Beloved took over, he was loyal to him too. Now, that is something you really have to learn, Sajith.
I have heard lately that you have been thinking about having your own party or a group within the Greens, Sajith. Surely you know that all those who broke away from the Greens-including your father’s Puravesi Peramuna-had to eventually return to the Greens.
Then when Lalith and Gamini formed the ‘Eagle’ party against your father, everyone thought that would be a great success. Lalith died, Gamini returned to the Greens and hardly anyone remembers the Eagles now!
It has been the same for the Blues as well because Maithripala’s ‘M’ faction when he was fighting with the Queen Bee and even Satellite’s ‘Mahajana’ party all but disappeared when their leaders returned to the Blues.
We all remember, Sajith, that your father had a sharp tongue but sometimes he made enemies as a result of that and I fear you may be doing that too. I think you need to think long and hard about what you say and remember, it is best not to criticise those in your own party in public.
Then, Sajith, you must also learn about who you should trust and who you should not. Unfortunately this is not something you can learn from the Green Man because most of the people he trusted and elevated to high positions in your party have deserted him or turned against him.
Then, there are times in politics when you have to accommodate even your rivals and give them their due place, or they will continue to fight against you and do more harm. Your father failed to realise this with Lalith and Gamini and now, the Green man has failed to realise this about you!
So, for instance, you may need to accommodate Ravi and give him his due place instead of trying to target him at every given opportunity, Sajith. Now that you have got the Number Two slot in the party after a fair election, no one, not even Ravi, can take that away from you.
You would also have to learn, Sajith, about how to keep most of the people happy most of the time. The best example of this is of course, Mahinda maama. He has people like Douglas and Thondaman, Wimal and Champika, Vasu and Dew in the same cabinet and none of them complain too much!
I will hope you will take all this to heart. Remember, you are still only forty five years old. You have miles to go and many promises to keep. You will be around when most of those you are fighting with now are long gone. Keep in mind, Sajith, that politics is a marathon and not a hundred metre race!
Yours truly,
Punchi Putha
PS-A final lesson that both you and the Green Leader must learn, Sajith is to smile. Whenever we see either of you on television or in the newspapers, you look as if you have just swallowed a bitter ‘kasaaya’ while Mahinda maama always seems as if he is appearing in a toothpaste advertisement!
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