Your Sunday Times highlights for this week

Read this week's Sunday Times for your interesting articles

Among tomorrow's articles are:

-  Budget to put brakes on duty-free vehicles

- Sri Lanka to undergo third money laundering, terrorism financing evaluation in 2026

- Sri Lanka submits national climate change contributions to UN convention 

- China EXIM Bank's Central Expressway loan interest triggers concern 

- Crimson Rose butterflies sweep across Mannar skies 

- Misuse of kerosine subsidy by heavy vehicles sparks crackdown 

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

My dear Sagara,

I thought of writing to you as you are frequently being called upon to present the view point of the ‘pohottuwa’ party despite the many controversies surrounding it. I don’t envy your job. Most of the issues you are being asked to deal with are challenging and you sometimes make a mess of it.

A few weeks ago, the ‘pohottuwa’ was invited to the Green party convention. It was understandable that Mahinda maama didn’t attend. After all, he would have to travel all the way from Tangalle. Still, Namal baby should have been there but he does the vanishing act and throws you under the bus. 

If all you had to do was to be there, smile for the cameras and mark your presence, that would have been fine. No, Uncle Ranil being the smart operator that he is, wanted you to make a speech, to people who have been your political rivals for decades, who you have criticised and called each other names. 

So, that is exactly what you said. You said that both of you, the Greens and the ‘pohottuwa’ chaps, called each other ‘hora, hora’ (or ‘thief, thief’) and that is why you are languishing in the opposition now. Didn’t you realise, Sagara, that this must be music to the ears of the ‘maalimaawa’ chaps?

In case you weren’t listening, that was the cry from ‘maalimaawa’ platforms at last year’s elections. They predicted that when thieves in rival camps are threatened, they will unite. Listening to you at the Green convention, it sounded as if that is exactly what has happened. Was the ‘maalimaawa’ right?

Then, as general secretary of the ‘pohottuwa’ party, you have to field questions about what that chap with the loose tongue, Tissakutti, says. He tells a meeting that when Namal baby becomes President in 2029, others can become ministers and Prime Minister but he will be his ‘unofficial President’.       

We all know the country is no mood to make Namal baby our leader right now but even the few who may want to do so may think twice if that comes at the price of making Tissakutti his ‘unofficial President’. Ah, you ‘pohottuwa’ chaps have Tissakutti to balance Handun from ‘maalimaawa’!

So, it becomes your job to set the record straight. We heard you told him to tone down the rhetoric. When asked about it, you laughed it off, saying the remarks were only meant for a party audience. Tissakutti then makes matters worse, saying ‘they can try but no one will be able to silence me’!

As if these problems were not enough for you, you also have to deal with this ‘Ice’ mess. When one of your candidates at the recent local government elections, Manamperi, is found linked to the discovery of chemicals used to manufacture Ice, you go into damage control mode and promptly suspend him.

Your explanation is that you had to select some eight thousand candidates and that there could be some bad eggs among them. You think you are being smart when you compare that to someone linked to the Easter Sunday terror attacks being on the rathu sahodaraya’s National List ten years ago.

It turns out this Manamperi chap was linked to the murder of parliamentarian Raviraj. He then became a state witness. He was also in Police intelligence. Do you want us to believe you were so ignorant that you didn’t know about his past, when a simple ‘google’ search would have revealed all this?

Your troubles didn’t end there, it got worse. Suddenly, there is this revelation about the Thajudeen murder and guess what, Manamperi is linked to that too. Police tell us that someone known as ‘Kajja’ with alleged links to the ‘R’ clan had been ‘identified’ on the night of the murder by his own wife.

What is absurd is that ‘Kajja’’s son, a sixteen-year-old boy takes to social media to deny his mother’s claim. Must we believe a sixteen-year-old acted on his own to defend his father when his father himself claimed he had links to the ‘R’ clan. Or, did someone set the boy up to it? If so, who did that?  

If the ‘R’ clan or Namal baby have nothing to do with this, the truth will prevail. Namal baby may be a lawyer but recently, he acts on the presumption of guilt until proven innocent. By jumping the gun, is he giving the game away? Or is that he is worried about Manamperi turning state witness again?

With all this going on, I wouldn’t want to do your job. A few years ago, we knew you only as Basil’s boy, simply doing his bidding. Now you have to do everything, even defending the indefensible. Basil, meanwhile, is nowhere to be seen or heard. Do you think he will ever come back, Sagara?

Yours truly,

Punchi Putha

PS- You were at the same talk show where Handun made a mess of it a week ago. You were asked some difficult questions. For keeping a straight face while justifying most of the actions of the ‘pohottuwa’, maybe you should be awarded the Nobel prize for politics. Just ask Handun for it!