An ultimatum, “Do the job or get out!”

Yahapalanaya coalition partners from time to time in the recent past had met the Betel Leaf secretarial one and presented to him numerous proposals designed to add muscle to the tottering alliance.

The secretarial one had received the files containing these proposals with a show of much enthusiasm and the party leaders had presumed that Number One would soon summon them for deliberations given the obvious urgency in translating these proposals into action with a national poll around the corner. Realizing that they had been waiting too long for a response from Number One, these leaders had decided enough was enough and had called on Number One for a direct exchange of views. “We hope that you have received and gone through the proposals we have already submitted,” they had told Number One.

Number One had looked surprised and asked, “What proposals?” Then only it had dawned on party leaders that the documents that they had given to the secretarial one should be still gathering dust in his office. Furious that they had been let down, the party leaders had later issued an ultimatum to the secretarial one, “Either do the job or get out!”`