Your Sunday Times highlights for this week

Read this week's Sunday Times for your interesting articles

Among tomorrow's articles are:

- New move to fast track corruption cases against public officials 

- HSBC's global strategic shift frees up turf for domestic banking sector 

- Mannar residents to continue protests against wind power projects 

- Technical barriers slow down waste management project 

- Nine-year-old's vigilance saves a life 

- X-Press Feeders says judgement undermines "limitation of liability"

The 5th Column's full text is as follows; 

My dear Handun,

I thought of writing to you because you have suddenly become the talk of the town, beating the tonnes of chemicals used to manufacture Ice being discovered in Tangalle and Anura sahodaraya’s maiden address to the United Nations. Who knew that two words from you could create such a hullabaloo!

Those two words are what you said in a television talk show when you were asked to explain your assets which you had declared publicly. “Oyaata Paanda”, you asked the interviewer in return. Many felt that this was a rather arrogant and condescending way of saying ‘I don’t care what you think’.

You may not have realised it then, but some governments get defined by a few words of their leaders. Remember Mahinda maama’s ‘Den Sepada’ and Gota maama with ‘api thamai hondatama keruwe’? Now, the ‘maalimaawa’ government runs the risk of being remembered for your ‘oyaata paanda’.

You seem to be having a habit of making headlines out of interviews, Handun. The last time we heard about you was when you attended the World Economic Forum and read out a few answers from a previously prepared sheet, no matter what the question was. You became the talking point then too.

The ‘big question’ at that time was whether you should have used a translator, allowing you to express yourself more freely. Last week though, language did not seem to matter to you. The ‘big question’ now is whether you think of yourself as someone who is above being questioned by anyone else.

If you are wondering why everyone is talking about this two-word response of yours, we were used to this kind of behaviour from those who you said were responsible for the ‘seventy-six-year curse’. Remember when SB told an interviewer, ‘kiyanne ne, kiyannema nehe’ (No, I won’t tell you at all)?   

Most people, when they voted for you, thought they were booting out politicians who showed that kind of arrogance. So, they don’t expect this type of response from you. That is especially so when your leader Anura sahodaraya repeatedly tells us that we are welcome to question him anytime.

Many are also concerned because your party, particularly the rathu sahodarayas in the ‘seenuwa’ camp, cultivated an image of your cadres living a hand-to-mouth existence on handouts given by well-wishers. That does not seem to be the case, the best example being Wasantha sahodaraya.

So, when it turns out that many of you lead comfortable lives, eyebrows are raised not because there is anything wrong with that but it is different to what you portrayed yourselves to be. That is why people want to question you. That is also why you shouldn’t get so hot under the collar about that. 

What is more disappointing, Handun sahodaraya, is that this response comes from you, not a first-time MP who was swept into Parliament last year. You have been in Parliament for over fifteen years, chaired the COPE in Parliament and is considered one of the frontliners in the ‘maalimaawa’ camp. 

When someone as experienced as you acts like this, we wonder whether you and your colleagues such as Wasantha, Nalin, Lakmali and your namesake, the other Sunil, are with the ‘maalimaawa’ or whether you are knowingly or unknowingly undoing all the hard work Anura sahodaraya is doing.

You and the other Sunil work well together. You give holier-than-thou responses at interviews. The other Sunil calls his driver ‘booruwa’, his parliamentary colleague ‘me yaka’ and makes libellous claims about Namal. Just like the British comedy act, ‘The Two Ronnies’, we have the ‘Two Sunils’!

What is difficult to understand is why the powers that be in the ‘maalimaawa’ keep on sending people like you to talk shows, so that you can display your arrogance or ignorance or both. Is it that you are on a journey of self-destruction or is it that there is no one else who can represent your party?

Handun sahodaraya, it is ironic that your performance came at the time of the first anniversary of Anura sahodaraya taking office. It took the gloss off that achievement. We think Anura sahodaraya has the strength to change the country but does he have the courage to change his Cabinet?

I hope all of you can put your heads together and work out a better strategy than what we saw at that television talk show the other day. Otherwise, you too could be out of a job in a few years. Ah, but why worry when you could then set up a bakery and ask all your customers, ‘oyaata paanda’?

Yours truly,

Punchi Putha

PS- Seeing the two Sunils at work in recent days, reminds me of words of a song from a third Sunil, the late Sunil of Gypsies fame: ‘baley aran moley nethuwa vedey kanney eyi’? or ‘why do you gain power and act without brains’? The answer, in his words, is ‘Ehema wenney eyi, I don’t know why!”