My Dear Seeya,
I thought of writing to you one year after your departure, because nobody seems to remember you anymore. Wherever you are, I hope you are happy.
I am also sure, Seeya, that were you to observe the events in our Paradise isle, you would be amused, to say the least.
First there is Satellite who came to power promising to undo everything that you did including the much talked of Executive Presidency - she even set a July 15 deadline for the event. Now she seems to have discovered some hidden virtues in your Presidency, she hardly talks about it these days!
Then there is the Indo-Lanka Accord where you created Provincial Councils and the SLFP took to the streets, opposing it. Now, Satellite and G.L. want to give something more substantial than Provincial Councils and some of your party men are taking to the streets opposing it. It’s a funny world, isn’t it?
Then, we remember how the Maha Sangha protested against your devolution package. Well, Seeya, they are still doing that but the difference is that another group of the Sangha is protesting in parks for the package! Somehow you were not able to organise that!
Interestingly, Seeya, your old friend Dixit last week published a book revealing that the Indo-Lanka Accord was in fact not what you wanted for our country but that it was forced down your throat by your other friend Rajiv.
Rajiv of course paid the supreme sacrifice for that but I wonder what all those people who blamed you for the Accord will say now!
But, Seeya, you can get some consolation from the fact that despite all your faults people have still not blamed you for plotting to kill generals in the Army or your political opponents.
You may also be pleased that AB, for whom you always had a soft. corner is now helping the greens and Ranil. Some still say he will eventually go back to his mother but only time will tell.
You may also realise that bombs in Colombo and the war in the North, for which you took much of the blame those days, still continue. So it may not be your fault after all.
Anyway, Seeya, what is most interesting is the way people, even your own political pupils, commemorate you after you departure, because they seem to recall only your faults. The words of your favourite poet said it all - “The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones...” So, Seeya, wherever you are, once again we hope you are happy...
Yours truly
Punchi Putha.
P.S: Your three most prominent political pupils who have also departed, have statues in their memory in Colombo, but you have yet to be so honoured though you reached greater heights than any of them. But then, there was one built of you in Japan. I suppose there is a moral in this story....
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