My dear Sajith,

I am writing to you because the big news this week was that ‘Colombo has fallen’. The Colombo Municipal Council, for almost seven decades a bastion of the Green party has finally fallen to the pink brigade of the ‘maalimaawa’ sahodarayas. To be more precise, it will be headed by Vraie sahodariya.

As a result, many questions are being asked. Again, your ability to take correct political decisions is being questioned. This is mostly because we remember you telling us quite categorically during the recent election campaign that you have no intention of doing ‘deal politics’ with the ‘hora pohottuwa’.

You did tell us after the election results that you received a message from the voters. We interpreted that message to mean that you needed to do much more to gain their confidence. Your interpretation was they had told you to unite with all other opposition parties and work against the ‘maalimaawa’.

We would have understood if you wanted to get together with the Green party to try and defeat the ‘maalimaawa’. Your ‘telephone’ party is an offshoot of the Green party and your policies are similar. The only reason why you don’t get together is because you and Uncle Ranil don’t like each other.

Yet, a week or so before the first meeting of the CMC, we were surprised to see your party, together with the Greens, Maroons and the Blues telling us that you would all be working together to prevent the ‘maalimaawa’ from gaining control of councils where they had the most seats but not a majority.

Whatever happened to that pledge about not engaging in ‘deal politics’, we wondered. And how could you even entertain the thought of working with the ‘pohottuwa’ when your last stint as Leader of the Opposition was spent exposing their corruption and scandals and calling for their ouster from office?

Whatever your faults, Sajith, you always took pride in claiming you were principled in making your decisions, even when they cost you. Remember, you have told us of how you refused the Premiership from Aiyo Sirisena many times, because you didn’t want to betray your then leader, Uncle Ranil?

Similarly, you reminded us countless times about refusing the Premiership offered by Gota maama during the ‘aragalaya’. On that occasion you said you will never assume office unless with a mandate of the people. How could you become PM in a Parliament full of ‘hora pohottuwa’ MPs, you asked.

Despite such history behind you, what you were telling us was that controlling the CMC was more important than continuing principled politics. Is it that you wanted to prove a point to the Greens as well, to show that the ‘telephone’ party was taking over what was with the Greens for seven decades?

Or, is it that the CMC has a special place in your heart? After all, the last time it was not governed by the Greens was when NM was mayor seventy years ago. He was later unseated by the vote of none other than your late father who went on to become Deputy Mayor, his first step in national politics.

A close contest for Mayor was brewing in the CMC but your camp was confident of sixty councillors, or so they said. You had left that job in Mujibur’s capable hands much to the annoyance of others such as Eran and Marikkar. You even solicited help from Dilith’s party, such was you desperation!      

However, when the vote was called last Monday, what unfolded was a comedy for us, a tragedy for you. Your councillors initially tried to bully the presiding official into agreeing to an open vote but the courageous lady that she was, she would have none of it. Then, they meekly agreed to a secret vote!

In the final count, the ‘telephone’ party chap lost by seven votes. So, if sixty people promised you their vote, six didn’t keep that promise. I don’t know whether your party ‘invested’ anything to get those votes but if it did, it didn’t get any returns- and you will never know who didn’t keep their word.

We heard you complain after the election about guidelines being violated, calling it undemocratic and threatening legal action. Surely, Sajith, what can be more democratic than a secret vote? Then, why did councillors from your party agree to a secret vote after debating the issue for over an hour?

You might argue that politics is the art of the possible. Indeed, it is. That is why, in a similar contest at the Galle Municipal Council, the ‘maalimaawa’ chaps won with the blessings of the ‘pohottuwa’. If it is of any consolation, the ‘maalimaawa’ also cannot now take the moral high ground about this issue.   

Looking back, Sajith, wouldn’t it have been better if you had acknowledged that the ‘maalimaawa’ had more councillors and let them take over Colombo? Coming events had already cast their shadows: they won all the electorates in Colombo including your own Colombo Central at the general election.  

Instead, you are left the stigma of partnering with the ‘pohottuwa’ and nothing to show for it in return. Some members of your own party are privately saying ‘we told you so’. So, it is not difficult to predict that your new Green-Blue-Maroon alliance will disappear before you can say ‘Vraie’!

Yours truly,

Punchi Putha

PS- This debate about open and secret votes might remain for some time. If ever there is a vote for the leadership in your ‘telephone’ party, I strongly advise you to find a presiding officer like that courageous lady at CMC- but one who will only allow an open vote, or it could be curtains for you!