{"id":93963,"date":"2019-10-16T16:36:52","date_gmt":"2019-10-16T23:36:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=93963"},"modified":"2019-10-16T16:36:52","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T23:36:52","slug":"the-baton-was-passed-on-lets-see-if-they-will-win-the-relay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/10\/16\/the-baton-was-passed-on-lets-see-if-they-will-win-the-relay\/","title":{"rendered":"The baton was passed on, let\u2019s see if they will win the relay"},"content":{"rendered":"

M. Ravi Hewa<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

\n\nMy dear Green Man,\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I thought I must write to you, now that you are free from the burden of campaigning and being a candidate. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That must be a big change for you as you have been at the forefront of all the Green campaigns for the past twenty-five years, even if most of them were not very successful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would be interesting if you could let us know what prompted\nyou to finally pass the baton on to young Sajith. After all, right until the last minute, you still wanted\nto contest and the chances are that if you put the decision to just the Green Working Committee, they would\nhave endorsed you anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Was it the possibility that even the Working Committee might\nhave dumped you and opted for Sajith, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

though it consists of people hand-picked by you? You do realize that people who you had helped in the Green party \u2013 like Mangala and Malik, for example \u2013 have switched loyalties to Sajith, don\u2019t you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or, is it a feeling that Sajith may not make it in the end? We\nknow you are quite clever at passing the buck when it suits you\nwhich is why you gave the then General the chance nine years ago and then chose Aiyo<\/em> Sirisena to run the race four years ago, although that didn\u2019t\nwork out as planned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Green Man, it was interesting to hear all those who backed you\nand worked against Sajith- those like Bond Ravi and the revengeful Akila- get on stage at Galle Face\nthe other day and sing his praises. I hope they mean what they say and they are not secretly hoping that\nSajith would lose the race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there is one man who shouldn\u2019t complain about Sajith being given\na chance, that is you, Green Man. You have had more than your fair share of chances in the past twenty-five years\nand in that decisive period for our country, you were unable to get the Greens to govern on their own even once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You inherited a party that was ruling with a five-sixths majority from your uncle. Even when Sajith\u2019s father died, the Greens were still strong although a little unpopular. Under your watch, however, you allowed first Satellite and then Mahinda\u00a0maama<\/em> to steal your stalwarts and gradually gain control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You may have been unlucky every now and then \u2013 such as when\nPrabha ordered a boycott of the big election the first time Mahinda maama<\/em> ran for\noffice \u2013 but it is also true that whenever you had the chance, you didn\u2019t make the\nmost of it, allowingthe Blues to steal power away from the Greens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make no mistake, Green\nMan, the worst period under your leadership was the past four years when Aiyo<\/em>Sirisena ran\nriot, behavingas if he was looking after a Grama Niladhari division instead of\na country. You must take part of the blame for that because it was you who put\nhim in that position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was not all. You also allowed those who were accused of\ncorruption on a massive scale to go scot-free, without inquiring into their\nactivities efficiently. Now, they are going around the country saying they have\ndone nothing wrong, simply because you haven\u2019t proved anything against them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adding insult to injury was the bond scam in the big bank a few months after you took over, hiring your Singaporean friend as the bank\u2019s Governor. Bond Ravi is still an important person in the Green camp, so you can\u2019t accuse others of corruption now. You have also lost your \u2018Mr. Clean\u2019 label.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There was a brief glimmer of hope for you when\u00a0AiyoSirisena lost his marbles on the night in October last year, sacked you and appointed Mahinda\u00a0maama<\/em>\u00a0as PM. People rallied against that move because it was undemocratic but you misinterpreted that, believing it was a massive vote of confidence in you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some people are still saying that regardless of who wins the big\nrace in November, you will be PM because Parliament cannot be dissolved until next\nyear. I hope you are not na\u00efve enough to believe that. Whoever wins, MPs will\n\u2018jump\u2019 to the winning side and you might soon be out of a job!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Green Man, this week we heard you say that you, Sampanthan\u00a0seeya<\/em>\u00a0and Mahinda\u00a0maama<\/em>\u00a0are still in politics because there is no retirement age. You entered Parliament at the age of twenty-eight and have been there ever since so why are you saying this now? Ah, wisdom comes late to some people!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite those forty-two years in Parliament you have always been second best and never had the top job. Now that you have passed the baton to Sajith, the baby elephant, I hope you won\u2019t try to take it back, regardless of what happens in November. That is the best you can do for the Greens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just as your uncle allowed Sajith\u2019s father to prosper, and just\nas we saw you guiding Sajith\u2019s mother at the convention the other day, we hope\nyou will guide him too. If you really want to help him, you could also ask\nMaithree to give a few tips to Sajith\u2019s better half about what to do and what\nnot to do!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yours truly, Punchi\nPutha<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PS- The results at Elpitiya don\u2019t look good for the\u00a0ali petiya<\/em>\u00a0or baby elephant, but a lot can happen in the next thirty-five days. Also, as our cricketers showed us three times last week, sometimes the most unexpected things happen when those who have been sidelined are at last given a chance!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

M. Ravi Hewa.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

M. Ravi Hewa My dear Green Man, I thought I must write to you, now that you are free from the burden of campaigning and being a candidate. That must be a big change for you as you have been at the forefront of all the Green campaigns for the past twenty-five years, even if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-93963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93963","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93963\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}