Of picking the wrong man for the wrong job

My Dear Satellite,

I thought I must write to you because I'm certain your mail box must be quite empty these days with even trusted former friends not wanting to be seen associating with you!

But as you spend your summer vacation in far away London, you seem to have stirred yet another hornet's nest in the land you once lived and ruled for twelve long years.

I am told the fuss now is all about inviting you to the party convention of the Blues because they are said to have dropped off an invitation in the mail box at your office in Colombo-without so much as a courtesy telephone call!

I agree it was not quite the correct thing to do, especially when you were responsible for lifting the party from its pathetic state in the early nineties, to where it is today.

But, Satellite, you are also partly responsible for your plight because you have the knack for picking the wrong man for the wrong job.

For instance, you should have never picked Mahinda Maama, first as Leader of the Opposition and then as Prime Minister. Remember, when the choice for Prime Minister had to be made everyone was expecting Kadir to get the job. He would have been an excellent choice and you could have proved to the world that we are not a racist nation. You let that chance slip by, Kadir probably lost his life because of it, and now you are out of a job because of it.
And, come to think of it, you haven't been very lucky with picking your general secretaries either. First you chose Dharmasiri who sadly passed away prematurely.

Then you chose your then buddy Seeni Bola who stabbed you in the back and decamped to the other side after condemning you in public.

But worst of all, you chose Maithripala from Polonnaruwa and the man now behaves as if you are under obligation to him when in reality he would still have been a back-bench Parliamentarian if not for you.

But then, you were not exactly reputed for astute political decision making, were you?

Why, when you were in power, you even agreed to form a 'probationary' government with the Reds and that collapsed in a heap shortly afterwards, paving the way for the Greens to come to power although it was only for a short time.

Then when there was a big fuss about last year's presidential candidate, you allowed Mahinda maama to be endorsed by your party, perhaps by thinking he would lose, but that was a costly lapse of judgment, wasn't it?

And who can forget the offer they made of retaining you as President for Life of the Blue Party in exchange for allowing Mahinda maama to contest the elections. Being the naïve politician that you are, you even declined that saying that you were eagerly looking forward to retirement and writing your memoirs.

But of course, all these mistakes do not justify how they are treating you now. I am sure there must be times when you must be wishing that Ranil had won the election but then as we all know, that is wishful thinking, even next time around…

So, be careful Satellite. Now is a good time to get to know who your real friends are. We are all expecting you to return to the country so we can see some fireworks-and they would not be the kind we now see in the North! But then, you haven't returned yet but for once, we won't complain about your being late!

Yours truly,
Punchi Putha

PS- I know you are not a great fan of the Greens, but their leaders got one thing right-when they retired, they really retired, without thinking of a comeback and disgracing themselves. Maybe the time has come for you to take a leaf out of their book now…