5th Column

My dear Namal baby,

I thought of writing to you because we hear you commenting on various issues these days when campaigning for the ‘pohottuwa’ for the general election. This is while you are desperately trying to salvage some pride after receiving a rude message from the voters at the presidential election.

Politics is a funny sport, isn’t it, Namal baby? After all those years of taunting the ‘maalimaawa’ chaps and calling them ‘seeyata thunai’ or ‘3 per cent’, you find yourself humiliated even more, at 2.5 per cent. The results of the last election must have given you much food for thought.

To give credit where it is due, your Basil baappa saw it coming. That is why he wanted Dammika to be the sacrificial lamb. That way, Dammika would spend his money for the election, the ‘pohottuwa’ would have a candidate and when he lost, you could step in without any damage to your reputation.

Dammika bailed out at the eleventh hour when he realised that he had no chance of winning. Being the businessman that he is, he won’t waste his money on a lost cause. Some say it was brave of you to contest but you had no choice, really. You didn’t jump at the opportunity. Rather, you were pushed.

If you were really brave, you would have contested the general election, say from your family pocket-borough of Hambantota – or even Mahinda maama’s adopted home of Kurunegala. Instead, you are running scared after seeing the statistics and seeking entry from the back door, the National List.

The statistics are indeed quite scary. You polled the highest percentage in Hambantota but even that was a mere 6 per cent of the vote. Everywhere else, it was less than 3 per cent except in four districts – Galle, Matale, Monaragala and Kurunegala – where you made it to just over 3 per cent.

That provides the answer for those asking why there is no Rajapaksa contesting in Hambantota for the first time in 88 years: they are sure to lose. Your surname, which was once your biggest asset and parachuted you into Parliament at the age of 24, has now become your biggest liability.

Going by the results of the last election, the ‘pohottuwa’ will suffer the same fate as the Greens 4 years ago. They will be reduced to one National List seat. We all know that is what you are aiming for but unlike Uncle Ranil who took that single seat for the Greens, you won’t end up being President!

So, what you are doing is sending an entire army of ‘pohottuwa’ candidates to contest, just so you can cash in on the votes they gather from around the country and get yourself into Parliament through the National List. The Rajapaksas are still good at getting others to do their dirty work, aren’t they?

Namal baby, I hope those working for you know this. However, your colleagues on the National List are those like Secretary Sagara and Thissakutti. I am not so sure they realise there will be only room for one from that list and that they will be left high and dry after doing all the hard work for you!

You might also think that, if the ‘maalimaawa’ could go from 3 per cent to winning the next election, you could do the same from 2.5 per cent. That is like many people believing they can become president of the country, if someone like Aiyo Sirisena and Gota maama can do it.

It may not be obvious to you, Namal baby, but being who you are, people will always associate you with what your father and uncles did. Mahinda maama won the war and the people gave him a blank cheque for that which he cashed several times over. As a result, we are in this economic mess today.

That is why it will be hard for you – or for anyone from your family – to gain the trust of the people again, especially if Anura sahodaraya and his team do a decent job in the next 5 years and keep at least some of their promises. It will be a long and difficult road ahead for you but time is on your side.

So, you must be careful, without trying to be too smart, challenging people to ‘find money in Uganda’ or ‘release the Easter attack report’. You must be humble, not cocky, unless you are squeaky clean and have nothing to hide, not even in Dubai, as Satellite said recently of a ‘young son of a certain leader’!

Seeing you and Sajith battle it out, Namal baby, the more I feel being someone’s son is a handicap rather than a blessing, especially when the sons try to act like their fathers. There is hardly a difference between you two, except that Sajith has the better team and you have Thissakutti and Sagara!

Yours truly,

Punchi Putha

PS: They say a politician thinks more about the next election and a statesman thinks more about  the next generation. For Mahinda maama, it may be the other way around. He did think about the next election, but where he went wrong was in thinking even more about his next generation!