My dear Namal baby, I am writing to you even though I am not certain whether you will get to read this, having suddenly being put behind bars Friday evening. I don’t know whether you were surprised by this turn of events, but for some time there were murmurs on the political grapevine that this [...]
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I am writing to you even though I am not certain whether you will get to read this, having suddenly being put behind bars Friday evening. I don’t know whether you were surprised by this turn of events, but for some time there were murmurs on the political grapevine that this would happen.
It shouldn’t have come as a shock to you because there were signs that this could occur. In recent weeks, Akila Viraj suffered the same fate and Piyankara was sentenced to a longer period of time. Ravi, ever the artful dodger, escaped by citing a list of medical ailments.
We thought you will at least have good company at Welikada because Johnny was also arrested on the same day as you and produced before court. However, he was granted bail. This meant he wouldn’t spend time at Welikada, at least for now. I don’t know whether you should be happy or sad about that!
You may disagree, Namal baby, but I think you are at least partly to blame for all this. Remember how it was during Gota baappa ’s ouster four years ago? Mahinda maama , you and the family had to flee and take refuge in Trincomalee. The ‘R’ name was not something to be proud of at the time.
You had the choice of disappearing quietly then. In fact, I think this is what Basil baappa has done. Instead, you chose to slowly return to the political arena. You ran the last big race even though you could muster just two and a half per cent. You then sneaked into Parliament through the National List.
The ‘ maalimaawa ’ chaps began talking about corruption in high places and money stashed away in Uganda during their election campaign. We realised some of it was fanciful rhetoric, but you began challenging them, saying ‘Where are the Lamborghinis? Show us the money in Uganda’.
You were so cocky, you were effectively saying, ‘catch me if you can’. Anura sahodaraya once countered that, responding with ‘don’t whinge when we catch you’. I guess that time might be now, although there can be many a slip between being remanded and being finally found guilty in court.
At least you can be proud that you chose to bite the bullet and spend some time in remand instead of citing a long list of medical conditions and asking for bail like Ravi did. Of course, being well over 20 years younger than Ravi, that would have been difficult anyway, wouldn’t it, Namal baby?
Predictably, your ‘ pohottuwa ’ colleagues now say your arrest and not being granted bail was because of the big rally that was being planned at Anuradhapura. The authorities foolishly refused permission for two venues in Anuradhapura but to link the two issues is a bit of a stretch, don’t you think?
Don’t forget that most people endorse punishing the corrupt, especially when it is done through courts in the proper way. However, when ‘ maalimaawa ’ chaps begin predicting who will be ‘going in’, the entire process becomes murky. Yet, it is too much to expect some ‘ maalimaawa ’ chaps to be sensible!
Recently, you were going from village to village, addressing small gatherings. Young Sajith was doing the same. He had a bigger support base to start with but there was a sense that some of Gota baappa ’s original ‘69 lakhs’ who voted for the ‘ maalimaawa ’ at the last election, were slowly returning to you.
If your aim was to reorganise the ‘ pohottuwa ’ and lift it from the two and a half per cent it fell to at the last big race – or the three per cent at the next general election – you can still continue your job. Why, so many ‘ pohottuwa ’ chaps – Mahindananda, Ranjith and now Piyankara – are all ‘inside’ now!
What was strange though was that, when you were taken into custody, Uncle Ranil was onto it in a flash. The Green Party issued a statement condemning your arrest, linking it with the rally at Anuradhapura, even before your own Sagara could get his act together and put pen to paper!
It is all well and good if that was done in the spirit of democracy, but knowing Uncle Ranil, I wonder whether he was trying to kill two birds with one stone? After all, what would young Sajith think about the Greens standing up for the rights of his potential rival for the opposition vote at the next big race?
In times like this, Namal baby, you have to view events positively. In this instance, any publicity can be good publicity and the pohottuwa ’s next big rally – wherever it is held, even if it is not in Anuradhapura – might attract a larger turnout because you are behind bars. Surely, that’s a win?
Life begins at 40, they say. At 40, your political life is not about what you achieved. It is all about being Mahinda maama ’s son, just like Sajith is all about being his piyano ’s son. Now, you are closer to following your father’s footsteps. He too was remanded once. Ask him all about that, Namal baby!
PS: Gota maama once said that he was seen as the least astute of the ‘R’ Clan. Your cousin Shamindra is smart, too, because he is also a party to this Airbus case, but he is away in the US as is Basil baappa who is the smartest of you all: when the going gets tough, he gets going, all the way to the US!
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