Tomorrow’s highlights in the Sunday Times

Read tomorrow's Sunday Times for your interesting columns incuding "The 5th Column" and many other articles. 

Among tomorrow's maain articles are:

• Hard won battles may soon be lost for policewomen 
• Verification, one way to defend against WhatsApp hackers
• Follow the science to wrestle with crop pwsts, experts advise

The 5th Column's full text follows:

My dear Mr. Ranwala,

I am writing to you because you are the talk of the town now. For the good part of a week and a half, all we talked about was you and your ‘qualifications’. You even managed to take attention away from more pressing issues such as rising rice prices and Anura sahodaraya’s upcoming state visit to India.

In that period of time, you managed to create a Degree of confusion, quite literally. Even people like Deshapriya, Devasiri and Nandasiri who supported the ‘maalimaawa’ at the last two elections began questioning your credentials. Until the very end you were silent, until that silence became deafening.

Your professional profile on websites suddenly disappeared, other entries were altered and titles were removed from official websites. This only led to more questions. With no answers forthcoming, innuendos were made. Some began scrutinising your colleagues too. Again, some ‘errors’ were found.

Even Nalinda, who is usually adept at fielding questions, dodged the issue saying an answer will be given at the ‘appropriate time’. Some of your followers tried to distract from the issue, querying the qualifications of people like  Satellite, Namal and even Sajith. Still, the controversy didn’t go away.

Now, don’t misunderstand. No one said you must be qualified to be a clever politician. Our first Prime Minister DS and the world’s first female Prime Minister Sirima didn’t have a higher education. Preme (Snr.), who despite his faults was a clever politician said he only studied at the ‘University of Life’.

Comparing these leaders with our more ‘educated’ leaders, it could be argued that the ‘less’ educated leaders have fared better. So, this is not about the degree of education that our leaders have. In fact, it is not about a Degree at all but about the degree of honesty and integrity they are supposed to have.

Mr. Ranwala, I hope you remember why you were elected. Your party, the ‘maalimaawa’, promised to change our corrupt political culture and end corruption and abuse of power. That was why people voted for you- and in large numbers too. Whatever you promised about the economy came second.

Anura sahodaraya asked us to ‘clean up’ Parliament. He told his new Cabinet moments after they were sworn in as ministers that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Just this week, he told a gathering on World Anti-Corruption day that if his government cannot stop corruption, nobody will.

Anura sahodaraya’s speech at that meeting was passionate and powerful. He told officials that, if a file about a case got bigger or smaller depending on whose name was in that file, that amounted to corruption. So, we wanted to see him apply that same yardstick to himself. This was his litmus test.  

We remembered Polgampola, only because Anura sahodaraya often quoted him as an example. When he was your MP, he allegedly tried to take a person to Japan as his assistant. When this was found, he was asked to resign, even before legal action. So, we wanted the same standards to be applied to you.

I hope you won’t say that this issue doesn’t amount to corruption, as we commonly see it. It may not involve money. Yet, this is a different type of corruption. It is a breach of the trust people have in you. That integrity- and not your policies- is you biggest asset. That is also what your rival parties lack.

Remember that vote of no confidence against the person who sat in the Speaker’s chair previously? It was alleged he manipulated numbers in the Constitutional Council to get Deshabandu a job.  The ‘maalimawa’ was scathing in their criticism and voted against him. That was only about his integrity.

Opposition parties wanted a similar vote of no confidence against you. Some of your  minions said that is not a problem as you have a two-thirds majority. That is what JR or Mahinda maama would have said. Keheliya and Mahinda Yapa survived such votes of no confidence. Where are they now?

Remember ‘yahapaalanaya’? They too assumed office promising of a new political culture. Months  later, the Central Bank bond scam emerged. They lost all credibility and haven’t recovered to this day. It was the beginning of their end. You could have been the beginning of the end for the ‘maalimaawa’.    

Finally, Friday the 13th proved unlucky for you. You resigned. Earlier that day, Anura sahodaraya categorically said that if someone in the government has erred, action will be taken against them. So, did you resign only because, if you didn’t, you would be sacked? Did you jump or were you pushed?

Anura sahodaraya, Harini and Tilvin will be thinking this is ‘better late than never’. What you gained by your resignation is avoiding a painful a no-confidence motion. Anura sahodaraya can say he kept his promise. Mr. Ranwala, if you really care about the ‘maalimaawa’, you should resign as a MP too.    

You say you never falsified you credentials. Yet, everyone, including Harini when she proposed you for Speaker, called you ‘Doctor’. Your campaign posters said the same. You didn’t correct them. You haven’t proved your qualifications, but you proved something else: you are not fit to be our 3rd citizen.   

Yours truly,

Punchi Putha

PS- You led protests against SAITM saying it was a ‘fake degree shop’. When the media reported on it then, they called you ‘Prof.’. You didn’t correct that too. Now it seems that your own university in Japan is a private university. This is why I addressed your as Mr. Ranwala and not Hon. Ranwala!