5th Column

My dear Saroja,

I didn’t think I will write to you so soon but I feel I should. This is after hearing you speak about the sad passing away of a schoolgirl under questionable circumstances, some of which comes under your watch. Your response received widespread disapproval  and you may be wondering what went wrong.

To begin with, it appears that when matters were first brought to the notice of the girl’s school, nothing much was done and the teacher at the centre of this issue continued teaching at the same school. That is of course not your fault because you wouldn’t have been notified about that.

The issue hit the headlines only after the girl passed away. The media picked up the story which went viral on social media. Then, when it got messy the teacher involved was transferred to Puttalam. That raised the question, if he is not good enough to teach in Colombo, how can he do so in Puttalam?

Then there were protests everywhere. The issue was raised by Mano in Parliament. It is your response to that question, where you said that you requested the parents to meet you with a petition but they hadn’t done so yet and said the girl had other health issues too, that caused an uproar.

You also said that justice cannot be dispensed on social media. We then heard Harini sahodariya telling us that a life has been lost and it should be dealt with outside of politics. Bimal sahodaraya was more combative, accusing the opposition trying to take political advantage of the situation.

It is true that there should be consideration for the life lost. At the same time, if there was any suspicion of negligence, it is surely the responsibility of the opposition to raise the issue. After all, isn’t that exactly what the ‘maalimaawa’ did during all those years when it was in the opposition?

Then, the issue was further confounded by the fact that a second tuition teacher involved in this incident was a ‘maalimaawa’ candidate at the last general election. So, whether he played a part in it or not, it appeared as if your comrades were putting all their efforts to protect the interests of one of their own.

All you had to do to avoid accusations was to suspend that gentleman from the party so an impartial inquiry can be held. That would have been similar to what Anura sahodaraya said about how the party dealt with Polgampola, an MP, when he was accused of trying to sneak a person into Japan.

Instead of such a response, we saw an entire ‘maalimaawa’ fan base take to social media, defending both your statement and your candidate. Some even called it ‘Shafi 2’. This is when people start asking questions as to whether there is a difference between the ‘maalimaawa’ and the ‘pohottuwa’.

Your own complaint about social media is ironic, Saroja. Social media was a key contributor to the ‘maalimaawa’s success at the last election. While it cannot dispense justice, as a politician of this day and age you must learn to live with the fact that social media is here to stay, whether you like it or not.

Your statement may have been factually correct. Still, the question is whether that was the most appropriate answer to a question when the life of a schoolgirl had been lost and there appeared to be some negligence from the authorities. What we didn’t hear from you was any expression of regret.

Your response about the parents not meeting you also raised many other questions. Do parents have to meet a minister with a petition in hand whenever an incident occurs to have justice served to them? You will then have nothing else to do other than meeting parents. Surely, that is not a proper process!

Mentioning that the girl had other health issues was appalling. It implied that this may have led to her sad fate. As your doctor husband would have told you, it is not correct for you to discuss someone’s medical condition in public and that too in  a speech in Parliament under the full glare of publicity.

Some say it was your inexperience that led you to respond in that manner.  Others say it exposes your insensitivity to the issue. Maybe it was a bit of both. Now the damage has been done. We can only hope that you will reflect on what happened and be humble enough to acknowledge your mistake.

Since the local government results were released, there is talk of the need to overhaul the government because it seems to be going nowhere. There is speculation about a cabinet reshuffle too. If that occurs, you will be lucky to keep your job, Saroja, because your defence was worse than the offence!

Yours truly,

Punchi Putha

PS- In response to claims that the sahodarayas and sahodariyas of the ‘maalimaawa’ are behaving in an arrogant manner now, Bimal sahodaraya proudly told Parliament, ‘Yes, we are arrogant with thieves’. Clearly, he has missed the message voters tried to convey at the election a few days ago!