5th Column

My dear JR,

I thought I must write to you, though it has been over a quarter of a century since you left us, because your name is being mentioned frequently these days. That is after your nephew began doing the job you did 45 years ago. What we have now realised is that his actions are very similar to yours.

You toiled long and hard to get to the top of the Green Party. That was a time when the Greens were called the ‘Unge Nedeyange Pakshaya’ and the ‘Uncle Nephew Party’ after the leadership passed first from DS to son Dudley and then, after Dudley’s resignation, to DS’s nephew, Sir John.

Dudley did return to lead the party after Sir John left for England, so you had to wait for decades until Dudley left us. Your nephew was more fortunate. All the frontrunners for leadership of the Green Party during his time fell victim to Prabhakaran’s bombs or bullets, clearing his path to the top.

When you finally became the leader of the Greens, JR, you got the top job of the country within a few years. Your nephew was not so lucky. He had to wait nearly three decades to get there, although he was second-in-command quite a number of times, mostly under Blue bosses, making his job harder.

How both of you got to the top are similar. When elected PM, you changed the Constitution, declaring yourself the big boss. So, you weren’t elected to that job, at least for your first term. Your nephew was also not elected. He is an ‘accidental President’, happening to be at the right place at the right time!

Now that your nephew is the boss, we have a sense of déjà vu. For example, there was the time when you sent a grim message to workers who staged strikes, sacking 40,000 of them in July ’80. Your nephew hasn’t sacked anyone yet, but he deals sternly with any protest, water cannons and all.

Do you remember, JR, how, after a few years of being in office and after the horrible events of July ’83, you used the laws of that time to outlaw the ‘rathu sahodarayas’ forcing them to go underground for more than a decade? Perhaps you were trying to show us that you were a ‘no nonsense’ leader.

Your nephew is trying to do the same. We thought Mahinda maama had banished terrorism from this land but now, your nephew is using the Prevention of Terrorism Act to deal with a different set of ‘rathu sahodarayas’, using it for tasks such as detaining undergraduates who are ‘troublemakers’.

We also recall how you said that, with the powers that were at your disposal, what you couldn’t do was limited to making a man into a woman. Your nephew has apparently done better: He is reported to have appointed a British citizen as a minister – although the matter is still being argued in court.

JR, it was a few years after you assumed office that the ‘Navam Perahera’ began in Colombo. Your nephew seems to share your love for pageants. He has taken to parading the logo of the Republic placed on top of an elephant in Kandy though many ask whether this is what we need right now.

You can also rest assured that your nephew has learnt your tricks of splitting the opposition very well. We remember how you split the Blue Party into two, pitting Anura against his mother, Mrs B. Well, your nephew has taken Sajith’s right-hand man Harin and turned him into Sajith’s harshest critic!

Speaking of the late Anura and splitting the opposition, do you recall, JR, the Kalaweva by-election almost 50 years ago? You took everyone by surprise by offering not to field a Green candidate for the election if Anura was nominated as the Blue Party candidate, causing panic in the Blue Party then.

Now, your nephew has done something similar. Economist Harsha wished to head a Parliamentary Committee on Finance but the younger son of your friend Gamini from the ‘telephone’ party was chosen instead, while his older brother is with the Greens. That has led to chaos in that party!

However, that is not the greatest lesson your nephew has learnt from you. We have memories of how, after protesting against Mrs B’s decision to extend the life of her Parliament, you extended the life of your own Parliament without an election, holding a referendum instead. Your nephew has done better.

The genius that your nephew is, he says no proper election was called – though the Greens did submit nominations. He ordered officials not to release money for elections as they aren’t an ‘essential’ part of our lives. He thinks they are not. He got to the top job without an election, didn’t he?

JR, you needn’t worry about leaving a lasting legacy for Paradise. Your nephew seems to have learnt so much from you in his 45-year apprenticeship for the top job. In just a few months, he has shown us that whatever you did, he can do better. With him in charge, it feels as if you never left us!

Yours truly,

Punchi Putha

PS: You continued the tradition of the ‘Uncle Nephew Party’, grooming your nephew for leadership. There is one lesson your nephew hasn’t learnt from you. That is how to make the Greens great again. After 28 years under him, the ‘Unge Nedeyange Pakshaya’ remains a ‘Unanduwak Nethi Pakshaya’!