Dear Mahinda,
You will forgive us for dropping all those lovely titles. We are confident of this simply because in conceding defeat gracefully you recovered for yourself dignity that you let slip away a few years ago. We are confident because in that very moment you became recognizable as the leader, the fellow-citizen and the one-of-us who was loved like few leaders are loved.
You were not a perfect President. You were certainly not the most imperfect President we’ve had either. You stood tall when it mattered. During your tenure you gifted back to the people of this country a land they had lost or rather their leader had squandered due to ignorance, arrogance and the mad pursuit of narrow political objectives. You recovered for us the right to breathe. You banished a culture of fear.
You could have done much more, but this is not the moment to go into all that. You did much. You did enough. Enough to be remembered. Enough to be remembered as a hero, a simple man of simple ways, who did what he could to the best of his ability and knowledge framed of course by his infirmities and human frailties.
Go well, Mahinda. You’ve earned your place in our history. You deserve a time of peace in your beloved Medamulana home.