5th Column

My dear Rajitha,

I thought of writing to you this week because you are in the news after a lapse of a few months. That is not necessarily good, because these days, when we hear of former ministers it is usually because they are either being convicted and sent to prison or being remanded on some serious charge.

We heard you were filing an application in court to prevent being arrested. There is a sense of déjà vu in that. You are doing a ‘Deshabandu’: you are ‘missing’ from your home, your whereabouts are not known, but you have lawyers fighting in court for you. Remember, Deshabandu hasn’t done well.

Honestly, Rajitha, I was both surprised and disappointed. You have been in this game for a long time and whether we agreed or not with what you did, or your constant changing of political parties, you were always a fighter, not someone who runs away from battle, but that is what you are doing now.

Your political journey began on the ‘left’ side of politics with Vijaya and Satellite in the ‘Mahajana Pakshaya’. By the time Vijaya passed away and Satellite returned to her family’s Blue party, you had joined Dearly Beloved in the Green party, only to see the Greens lose the next election to Satellite!    

You still entered Parliament through the Green National List. There was more trouble in store for you there. Dilan filed a case challenging your appointment saying you did ‘business’ with the government. Wijeyadasa, later your Cabinet colleague, argued his case. You were unseated in an election petition.

However, it is not for nothing that Uncle Ranil is the Old Fox’s nephew. Just as much as the Old Fox once reappointed Abeyratne Pilapitiya when the courts unseated him as the MP for Kalawana on an election petition, Uncle Ranil re-appointed you on the National List and you returned to Parliament!

With such history between you, one would have thought you would be eternally grateful to Uncle Ranil. No, you were not. Just seven years later, you happily crossed over to Mahinda maama’s camp abandoning Uncle Ranil. That was with that infamous ‘gang of 18’ led by none other than Karu.

You became restless another seven years later and left Mahinda maama’s camp. That was with Aiyo Sirisena and the motley crowd which formed the ‘yahapalanaya’ mob. You rose to prominence then because, like Nalinda now, you were not only the Minister of Health but also the Cabinet spokesman.

It is interesting that the ‘yahapalanaya’ administration investigated many acts of alleged corruption during Mahinda maama’s rule but they forgot to investigate some alleged acts of commission and omission in the Ministry of Fisheries, then under you. That was rather convenient, wasn’t it, Rajitha?

It took you only five years to leave Uncle Ranil and the Green party a second time. That was with young Sajith to form the telephone party. At that time, like many others in the Green party, you too must have subscribed to the theory that, with Uncle Ranil at the top, you will not win any elections.

Another four years later, just before the next presidential election, you told us that Sajith couldn’t win any elections himself and that you were returning to Uncle Ranil. I am not sure who should be more ashamed: you for repeatedly returning to Uncle Ranil or him, for repeatedly accepting you!

As a result, with the ‘elephant’ party re-incarnated as the gas cylinder, you had to contest with assorted ‘pohottuwa’ types on the same list from Kalutara. The final outcome was that Raththaran Rohitha sneaked past you into Parliament by the barest of margins. You have challenged this in court.

What all this tells us, Rajitha, is that you are not the idealistic, principled leftist politician who was with Vijaya and Satellite and their ‘Mahajana Pakshaya’. Instead, you are one of many people whose idea of being in politics is to do whatever you can with whoever you can just to be in the Cabinet!

Now, you are out of power and out of Parliament. Besides, investigators are looking into past transactions under your watch when you were Fisheries Minister. They probably suspect that your old habit of which you were found guilty of – doing business with the government – persisted even then.

We must not judge you yet on the charges against you. Time will tell the truth, as it is being revealed for Mahindananda and Keheliya. However, if you have done no wrong, there is no reason to play hide and seek. After all, even if you are remanded for a few days, you will be in familiar company!

Yours truly,

Punchi Putha

PS: With you missing in action, your son is doing all the talking. He is making noises about how he will bring down the present regime. It baffles me as to why his name means ‘eloquent’ when he is anything but that. If he wants you to have the best outcome, Rajitha, please ask him to say nothing!