5th Column

Your Lordships,

We don’t usually write to you but then, I thought I must write to you now because these are unusual times. In some seventy years of independence in Paradise, democracy has been tested in many ways with the postponement of elections, terrorism and insurgencies but matters have never been like this.

It has now come to a stage where we have a Head of State who seems to lose his ability to think clearly on Fridays. We have two Prime Ministers but both of them don’t know whether they are coming or going. We also have a Parliament which, on a normal business day, resembles a prison riot.

After more than five weeks of all this, Your Lordships have been asked to decide on whether Aiyo Sirisena’s decision to suddenly dissolve Parliament is legal or not. The nation is awaiting your verdict in the hope that it will provide some clarity and stability amidst the current chaos and uncertainty.

On the one hand, we have Parliament carrying on, on the basis of the interim order you gave. There are different points of view about whether Aiyo Sirisena can dissolve Parliament when he feels like it but your order has proved one issue beyond doubt — Mahinda maama doesn’t command a majority.

Of course, if he did, he wouldn’t need to resort to his minions throwing everything from chairs and chilli powder. He could have walked in to Parliament like a real Prime Minister, demonstrated his majority and we would have been spared this agony. However, his broker SB got his numbers wrong.

SB must have thought that his colleagues would also be like him. He thought that given the correct price, some Greens could be bought over and the Blues would be able to live happily ever after with their support. However, as Rangey has demonstrated to SB and to all of us, that didn’t happen.

Once Mahinda maama’s camp realised this, they have resorted to either disrupting Parliament or boycotting it. As we have seen already, several votes have been passed against them although his lapdogs like Dinesh continue to dispute this. So, it is clear that they can never get any laws passed.

On the other hand, Aiyo Sirisena is acting like a petulant child because he didn’t get what he wanted, saying he will never appoint the Green Man as Prime Minister again. It reminds me of children quarrelling in kindergarten and saying ‘mama tharahama tharahai’ (I’m angry with you forever).

However, we have to take what Aiyo Sirisena says with a pinch of salt. Remember, this is the same fellow who made an address to the nation three years ago just before the general election, saying that even if the Blues win, he will never ever appoint Mahinda maama as the Prime Minister again!

This country’s is not Aiyo Sirisena’s personal property for him to say that if the Greens nominate the Green Man, he won’t appoint him just because he doesn’t like him. After all, hardly anyone among the 6.2 million who voted for him like him now, but we still have to put with him till 2020, don’t we?

We remember when Satellite was the boss and she refused to swear in SB (yes, the same rascal) as a minister when he was with the Greens. Everyone knew how much Satellite hated SB but, in the end, she had to swear him in as a minister because that was her job- and she did so, through clenched teeth!

Your Lordships, I honestly feel that most people in Paradise are now so sick and tired of this dirty drama of politics that is being played out at their expense. They couldn’t care less whether the Green Man or Mahinda maama was their Prime Minister because in some ways, they have both failed us.

Your Lordships, I am sure you realise, however, that the greater issue in this entire saga is whether we allow our Constitution to be interpreted in various twisted ways to suit the whims and fancies of one man or woman holding the top job. If you allow that now, there is no limit to what can happen next.

Just imagine what would happen if you allow the dissolution of Parliament to go ahead, we have a general election and Aiyo Sirisena decides that he doesn’t like the next Parliament the people have elected. He could dissolve that Parliament too the very next day — and we will be back to square one!

I know Your Lordships will take all of this in to account in making your decision this week. In a nation weary of the dirty tricks of its politicians, you must realise that you are the last bastion of hope for so many people, citizens who don’t want this country to be at the mercy of selfish politicians ever again.

Yours truly,

Punchi Putha

PS – Thirty-four years ago, someone surreptitiously inserted an obituary for ‘Democracy’ in local newspapers to protest against the clampdown on the then opposition. Democracy didn’t die that day. We hope your verdict this week will ensure that it lives to fight another day — and another government.