5th Column

My Dear Madam,
I thought I must write to you because you are the most talked about person these days and we heard this week that there are plans to oust you from your job. I think they will try their best to do so, even though you deserve better than that.
Of course, Madam, you are not unique. Two others who held your job before you, faced the same fate. One resigned without facing an inquiry and another escaped because of a technicality. Unfortunately for you, the outcome may be different.

I am not surprised. We saw what happened to the General who was instrumental in winning the war. The way he was treated-hounded with dozens of cases being filed against him, court-martialled, stripped of his rank, sent to jail and even deprived of his pension-conveyed the message that no one is ‘special’.

However, the wheels of justice which turned at lightning speed for the General came to an absolute standstill when dealing with, for instance, a Silva-be it Mervyn, Duminda or Malaka. And we suspect that this principle of applying different standards to different people will be applied to you too, Madam.

We know that you have had your critics. When you were first appointed, there were concerns that you were not suited for the job you were chosen to do. That was because you are first and foremost an academic and had little or no experience in the type of job that you were asked to do.

There were other concerns as well. There were suggestions that you were the professor’s protégé. The insinuation was that you would do his bidding. Since he is as duplicitous as they come, he too would have probably expected you to tamely toe the line.

You may not have had much experience in the type of job you were asked to do, but you were able to overcome that handicap. Perhaps your career as an academic helped you.

Then, when you were promoted, there was again a suggestion that this was because the professor was pulling the strings. You may not have realised it, Madam, but the professor-and maybe even those above him-would have thought that by promoting you, they could always have their way.

That is probably why they even appointed your spouse to another top job. I think what they were trying to say to you was, “You look after us and we will look after you.” Unfortunately, you failed to read between the lines, Madam, or if you did, you didn’t want to be dictated to.

Now, they allege that your spouse engaged in questionable transactions. I won’t comment on that, because those accusations have not been proved in a court of law-and he wasn’t charged in courts for many months after the alleged offences came to light either. To be fair, he has always protested his innocence.

What is more interesting is that, soon after you make a vital decision that goes against the powers that be, your spouse is charged in court. I find the coincidence fascinating. I think the message that is being conveyed to you now is different: “if you don’t look after us, we won’t look after you.”

I have an uneasy feeling that the script for the rest of this drama has already been written. The procedure that has begun will take its course and very soon, you may find yourself at the receiving end of a harsh verdict, so different from the kind of justice that you have been dispensing.

The irony is that the decisions made by your predecessor in allowing crossovers from one side to another have swelled the ranks of the powers that be. Now they can pretty much do as they please. And they are using the majority that your predecessor allowed them to have, to get rid of you!

Even those who are supposed to oppose these tactics are not very keen on defending you. They say that the decisions made by those of your kind-especially those made by one of your predecessors helped to deplete the opposition ranks, so they are not eager to support you but I can’t see how two wrongs can make a right!

I hope you have the courage to stand up for what you believe is right. It is important that you do so, if only to demonstrate to the rest of the world that we are not the five-star democracy that we claim to be. They may have their way, but it is also important that you have your say.

If you do that, you will be remembered for taking a courageous stand. If you look at a list of your predecessors, we only remember the names of those who did that. So, it is our fervent hope that you will be remembered as someone who upheld the last bastion of the Rule of Law and not as someone who meekly threw in the towel.

Yours truly,
Punchi Putha
PS-You made history by becoming the first female in your job. Remember, there was another lady from our land who became the world’s first woman at her job. At one time, they tried to get rid of her too by stripping her of her civic rights but she bounced back to occupy the same job years later. And what’s more, her name and her initials are quite similar to yours too! So who knows, history may even repeat itself!

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