5th Column

My dear Green Man,

I know I should congratulate you on being appointed PM again, but I really don’t know what to do: whether to hang my head in shame or heave a sigh of relief, knowing that you will be better than lazy Nimal, ‘deal’ Wijey or dodgy Dullas so I will close my eyes, hold my nose and say ‘congratulations’!

Some say you were appointed for a record sixth time. Records are not new to you. In 1994, when you took over the Green party from DB, the party had 44 per cent of the vote. In 2020, after 25 years in charge, you managed to bring it down to a record breaking 2 per cent!

Another record of yours is that, politically speaking, you were always the bridesmaid and never the bride: you were the only Green leader who became PM but never President. In fact, since you took over the Greens, they haven’t had a President. You never completed a five-year term in office either.

That doesn’t mean you are not clever, Green Man. Only a very clever person can order his party not to nominate candidates defeated at the election on the National List, do just that after the election, represent a party with just one seat in Parliament and then become PM. That is sheer genius!

Long ago, we did appreciate you leaving Temple Trees after your very first stint as PM when Gamini wanted DB to try and form a Green government. Unfortunately, that trait of leaving when you are no longer wanted has deserted you since then, especially as leader of the Green Party.

Still, you may be wondering why, when you try to save us from economic ruin, people query your motives. Well, those at the ‘aragalaya’ ask why, when 72-year-old Gota maama said a ‘young’ Cabinet was needed, he replaced 76-year-old Mahinda maama with you, no spring chicken at 73!

The other reason why many doubt you is because you had so many chances but ruined most of them. 20 years ago, Satellite outsmarted you and cut short your term. When you ran against Mahinda maama, he got the Tigers to enforce a boycott, and you lost. Even Aiyo Sirisena was able to oust you.

Your worst mistake, though, was not making use of ‘yahapalanaya’ to make this country a better place. Instead of punishing those who robbed the nation, you did nothing. They returned five years later to rob us again. So, in a roundabout way, you are also responsible for the terrible plight we are in now.

We haven’t forgotten that it was your cronies who robbed the big bank. It may be alright to invite you back because there is nothing left in the big bank to rob now, but many have doubts as to whether you are the right person to lead a ‘system change’ that requires politics to be free of corruption.

Your expertise, experience and the organisations you have access to, would be of value in resurrecting the economy, but, pardon me, people want to know whether you stand for abolishing the Presidency as we know it, whether you want Gota maama to go home and whether you will really probe corruption.

Just after you took oaths as PM, we saw you being surrounded by the ‘usual suspects’ such as Sagala and Vajira, though thankfully, Ravi was not to be seen. Seeing you with them, we just wonder whether you will rely on them yet again, knowing that they led you astray the last time you had this job.

A key demand of those who rallied around the ‘aragalaya’ is, for allegations against the ‘first’ family to be probed again. Can you do so, Green Man, when you hold office at the whim of Gota maama? Or will it be like what Ranjan said: ‘Ung okkoma yaaluwo, malli’ or ‘they are all friends, brother”

To be fair, whenever you were PM – except when you were with DB – it has been your misfortune to work with those not from the Green Party. Your stint with Satellite ended prematurely. Aiyo Sirisena stabbed you in the back. Do you really think working with Gota maama will be any easier for you?

By overstaying your welcome in the Green Party and trying until the eleventh hour to be the Green candidate at the last big race, you reduced it to almost nothing. Having done so, your recent actions nearly split the ‘telephone’ party too. So, the only people you are helping is the ‘pohottuwa’ chaps.

Believe me, Green Man, I am no great fan of young Sajith. He has a lot to learn, and miles to go, to get to where his father was. His sense of timing is awful. We saw that last week, first in the Siyambalapitiya fiasco and then when he started writing letter after letter to Gota maama.

Still, you stood by his father during his impeachment. He stood by you, refusing to be PM, when Aiyo Sirisena offered it to him, to oust you. So, he has some integrity. It is better if both of you can get along.  We haven’t got the government we deserve. We should at least get the opposition we deserve.

Mahinda maama’s ordeal when he didn’t leave at the correct time, should make you think. The man who ‘saved’ the nation from terror had to save himself from the terror the nation was unleashing on him, showing that higher the pedestal, the harder the fall. Surely, you don’t want the same fate!

Don’t get me wrong, Green Man, we want you to succeed. That is not because we love Mahinda maama less or we love you more, but because we love our motherland the most. We are worried, though, that you haven’t learnt from history. If you haven’t, then we are all doomed to repeat it.

Yours truly,

Punchi Putha

PS: We heard that Mahinda maama has congratulated you. Of course he would, because you are his best ‘insurance policy’. Of all the people who are happy about your appointment, he must be the happiest. He must be thinking that, with enemies like you, he doesn’t need any friends!