5th Column

My dear Pillayan,

I am writing to you because everyone is suddenly talking about you when they should be talking about the New Year, the Dalada exhibition  or the local government elections. This is because you were first arrested, then detained under the PTA and various people wanted to contact you after that.

Some will argue that you should have been detained under the PTA a long time ago, when you first joined Velu and his Tigers as a child soldier at the age of sixteen years. That did not happen.  You did breakaway from the Tigers, forming a separate group in the East with Karuna twenty years ago.

Many events happened in the East around this time. One was the brutal murder of Joseph P, the TNA MP, on Christmas day. Another was the abrupt disappearance of the Vice-Chancellor of the Eastern University. There were whispers as to who was responsible, but they didn’t affect you at that time.

Then, you managed to oust Karuna and became head of your own political party. Karuna left for England. That is when you hitched your wagon to Mahinda maama’s star, supporting him in return for a free reign in the East. With war raging in the North, he turned a blind eye to your antics in the East.

You seized your chance when Sarath decided that the North and East shouldn’t be merged any more. Polls were called for the East and your party joined with Mahinda maama’s party to contest them together. With Mahinda maama backing you and the East ‘liberated’, it was no surprise that you won.

After the election, Mahinda maama had a crucial decision to make: choose between Hizbullah and you for the Chief Minister’s job. He chose you, maybe because he thought your support was more important for him. A year later, the Velu was dead, the Eelam war was over. You seemed set for life.

Then, the unexpected happened. Mahinda maama lost to Aiyo Sirisena. The ‘yahapaalanaya’ regime began probing Jospeh P’s murder ten years earlier. You were detained under the PTA and spent five years behind bars. It is said Zaharan was at the same prison at the same time. Ah, what a co-incidence!

Being behind bars didn’t stop you. After Gota maama’s victory, you were smart enough to align with the ‘pohottuwa’ and contest the elections. You were in prison but your party campaigned for you. Again, you won and entered Parliament while the ‘pohottuwa’ chaps secured a large majority.

As we all know, God, and justice in our country works in mysterious ways. With a new government in office the Attorney General’s Department decided not to pursue charges against you. You were a free man again. The icing on the cake was when Gota maama appointed you as a state minister after that.

Only a few months later, Gota maama had to flee. Seeing an opportunity, you teamed up with Uncle Ranil and continued as a minister. This was when your former associate Azad appeared on Britain’s Channel 4 television network, making sensational allegations against you. You denied them strongly.

Uncle Ranil did what he usually does in such situations and appointed a committee to look into this. You continued to support him, even at the last big election. Unfortunately, that didn’t end well after the ‘maalimaawa’ chaps won with a huge majority. Now we see the scales of justice tilting once more.

You were detained recently for that Vice-Chancellor’s abduction nineteen years ago. While that may not be surprising to many, what has aroused great interest is who wants to talk to you. We heard Uncle Ranil wanted to have a chat. He was refused but Gammanpila was allowed to, as your legal counsel.

People are asking many naughty questions about why Uncle Ranil suddenly wanted to talk to you. I wouldn’t be so concerned. After all, being the very empathetic person that he is, he may have just been enquiring about your welfare. I do wonder why such a simple explanation is so hard to believe!

As for your choice of Gammanpila as your counsel, that stretches the imagination even more. For all his theatrics in the media, we haven’t seen him argue a case in court. Also, he stands for ‘pivithuru’ or ‘pure’ Sinhala nationalism. You once fought for Tamil separatism. How does the twain ever meet?

In the kind of mess that you find yourself in, Pillayan, with disappearances, murders and terror attacks potentially on the rap sheet, you need a Choksy or a Romesh or even a Peiris- Dileepa or Saliya but  not G.L.-but certainly not a Gammanpila. I must say though, ‘Gammanpillayan’ has a nice ring to it!

You had links with Velu, Karuna, Mahinda maama, Gota maama and Uncle Ranil but  you are being detained for what occurred after you cut your ties with Velu. There is great interest in what skeletons you may have in your cupboard. So, you need a better lawyer. Don’ t they say, cheap things, no good?

Yours truly,

Punchi Putha

PS- The ‘maalimaawa’ chaps came into office promising to clean up corruption, abuse of power and crime quickly. Many are the complaints that they are not doing their job properly. Now though, we have three former Chief Ministers in custody: you, Ranjith of Rajarata and Chamara Sampath in Uva!