5th Column
Oh what a performance!
View(s):My Dear Dayasiri,
I thought I must write to you after hearing that you have decided to leave the Greens and join Mahinda maama and his band of merry men to contest the next provincial council elections from the Wayamba region. I suppose this shouldn’t come as a great surprise because there had been speculation time and again that you would cross over in the last few years but when it did happen just before the provincial election, it came as somewhat of a shock.
We heard what you had to say when you crossed over, Dayasiri, and that is what I wanted to write to you about, because we had come to respect you as someone who spoke his mind freely and acted according to his conscience. Now, we heard you say that you too could have simply crossed over to the Blues and obtained a portfolio in our ever expanding Cabinet of Ministers but you chose to resign with honour instead and we do respect you for that.
You said you didn’t want to do that because you entered Parliament with green votes. You also said that you would resign, leaving those votes at the feet of your leader so he could appoint anyone of his choice for the seat vacated by you. That is indeed admirable.
We heard you lament about the lack of democracy within the Green party and how your leader was sidelining anyone who dared to speak out against him. You also spoke of how your party leadership was fast becoming a dictatorship. We too share those concerns, Dayasiri.
You also spoke of how long time supporters are leaving the party, disillusioned because the Greens are not agitating enough against Mahinda maama and how the leadership is content to sit back and watch while Mahinda maama does whatever he wants. We think there is some truth in that too.
While we agree with you on all these issues, Dayasiri, a few questions remain. We remember you as one of the most vociferous critics of Mahinda maama and that is why we admired you. Why, you were in the forefront of all the protests the Greens launched against the Blues, weren’t you?
Even in your ‘farewell’ speech in Parliament, you recalled how the Green protests were tear-gassed and baton charged on Mahinda maama’s orders. You also remembered how you took to the streets when the Blues raised electricity prices and passed the eighteenth amendment.
Why, Dayasiri, in your ‘farewell speech’ you spoke of how you opposed the jailing of the General after the last presidential election and the impeachment of the Chief Justice on flimsy allegations. You recalled how you were opposed to nepotism and family rule and abhorred dictatorial tendencies.
Yet, Dayasiri, in the same speech, almost in the same breath, you also say that you are joining Mahinda maama and his party to contest as his chief ministerial nominee in the Wayamba provincial council elections. Pardon me, Dayasiri, but I am more than a little confused by all this.
I think even your colleagues in the Green party are confused. Why, you had told them only the day before that no matter what, you will never leave the Greens but continue to fight for your rights within the party itself. Two wrongs do not make a right, Dayasiri. If it was wrong for the Green Leader to sideline you, how can it be right for you to suddenly join forces with Mahinda maama? Seeing pictures of you clasping Mahinda maama’s hands and both of you grinning from ear to ear makes me sick of politics!
By deceiving all those who supported you and then aligning yourself overnight with those you so fiercely criticised, haven’t you shown that you are also just another politician- a hypocrite who says something and then does exactly the opposite? That is why we are confused, Dayasiri.
How can you stand alongside the Mervyns and the Dumindas of the Blues and smile for the cameras, Dayasiri, when only a few days ago you were accusing them of murder and mayhem? And that man who made a teacher kneel will now be your colleague in the Wayamba provincial council!
If you were sincere in your intentions and could no longer stay with the Greens because you were being ill-treated and if you enjoyed the kind of popular support that you say you do, you could have resigned and contested the elections on your own or simply retired from politics, Dayasiri.
If you did that you would have commanded the kind of respect we reserve for example, for the late Gamani J who resigned from JR’s cabinet because he couldn’t agree with what his leader was doing. But, what you have done now is to merely cling on to the saatakaya like everyone else!
What this means is that you are no different from the Johnstons, the Lakshmans, the Amunugamas, the Keheliyas, and the Pabas and the Karus who betrayed the Greens and opted instead for the sense of security-and the carrot of a powerful position-offered by the saatakaya.
Now we know where your real talent is, Dayasiri. You shouldn’t have been in ‘Dancing Star’ or attempt to become a singer-you should have taken to acting instead. Your performance of deception and dishonesty over the past few weeks would have had even the great Gamini Fonseka blushing!
Beware, Dayasiri: already, that Athula chap says he will be chief minister. Mahinda maama is clever at giving people the karapincha treatment-using and discarding them. Tell us what the real deal is-what did he promise you if you do not win the elections? At least, be honest about that, will you?
Yours truly,
Punchi Putha
PS-I heard that a chap took a bet on you not crossing over to the Blues and when his lost the wager, had to walk naked across his village. Well, as far as I am concerned, there is only one man whose political nakedness is on display and we all know who that is, don’t we, Dayasiri?
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