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| Sunday, 8 February 2004 |
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The Muslim political question The time is ripe for the Muslims to re-examine their political representation in the country, particularly in the East and North, and devise practically viable methods to strengthen it, so that it could survive the current political climate, maintain its due position and continue as a force to be reckoned with. The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) was formed in the early Nineteen-Eighties to address the issues facing the Muslims of the East and North in the face of the conflict which was brewing at that time regarding the Tamil Ethnic Question. The leadership qualities shown by the late founder-leader of the SLMC, Marhoom M. H. M. Ashraff, prompted a few of us to grab the opportunity and promote him as a Muslim Leader who could address the problems of the East and North Muslims. The SLMC was, over a decade, able to carve out a political niche in the regions of Muslim numerical dominance. The political strength thus obtained was utilized to address problems of the Muslims outside the East and North as well. With the demise of the Founder Leader of the SLMC in September 2000, there arose within the party a tussle for power, which lead to the fracturing of the party structure leading to the birth of many factions, each of which continuing to stake its claim for the legitimate ownership of the party. Thus the party remains entangled in a legal quagmire with an interim leadership with its own structure, without the legal authority to use its symbol the "Tree". In December 2002 eleven topmost office holders of the party High Command rebelled against the then leader of the party sighting various allegations against him in general and, in particular, his failure to consult the decision making body of the party in important matters affecting the community, and arrogating all powers to himself. It was clearly apparent that the fracturing of the party structure and the birth of many factions of the party was mainly due to the above reasons, facilitated by the extraordinary powers vested with the leader of the party, enabling him to override the decisions of the decision making body of the party, the High Command. The natural and sensible approach to develop devices to get over this difficulty and strengthen the party structure is to bring about necessary changes in the constitution of the party to stabilize it and, ensure through it, the stability of its leadership. What is important, in practical terms would be, at least a semblance of satisfaction to the party stalwarts that they are being consulted and their aspirations addressed to. With the above realizations in mind I spearheaded the reconciliation talks with the interim leader of the party during the last eight months, with the objective of laying the groundwork for the long-term stability of the party. Verbal assurances, during the talks, by the interim leader, on many occasions, about his commitment to bring about the necessary changes in the constitution of the party, failed to materialize every time attempts were made to commit them to writing. Enthusiasm to take in Members of Parliament and make a public announcement straight away, was much more evident than his efforts to bring in long term and even founder members of the party. There was not only disappointment about the outcome of the talks, but also the credibility and sincerity of the interim leader was brought into question. All he was prepared to do is to expand the High Command of the party to include these long-term members and pioneers of the party as non-office holders, paving the way for their humiliation. Recent statements by the interim leader that "he is prepared for any forms of compromises" to unite the many factions of the SLMC, are in direct contradiction to what came to light during the reconciliation talks I had with him. The coming together of all the factions under his leadership appears not only to be a distant dream but also not feasible, for the reason that there is mistrust, loss of esteem and fading away of the halo of reverence once associated with the leadership of the SLMC. Considering the nature of the issues facing the Muslims of East and North today, which are peculiar to them as against those of the Muslims in the rest of the country, the necessity for a powerful and independent political party for the Muslims in the East and North is clearly evident. Muslims outside the East and North could still manage to face their problems while working for the political parties of the majority community. The task before us, then, is to identify a new leadership for the East and North Muslims which would have its representation in these provinces, be a part of it, with direct knowledge of the problems of the people there, and have aspirations which would not be different to the aspirations of its people. The ideal leader then would be one who could repeat the performance of the founder leader of the SLMC by polling as many preference votes as he polled in the Ampara District. We are, no doubt, on the look out for such a leader and are determined to support and promote such a leadership as we did in the past when we identified the leadership potential in Marhoom M. H. M. Ashraff. The security of the Muslims in the East and North, their representation as a community in all forms of talks to resolve the ethnic conflict, and assurance of their due share in the governance of their provinces are foremost in our minds. We abhor terrorism in any form and are encouraged by the resolution against terrorism adopted at the Twelfth SAARC Summit in Islamabad recently. Dr. A. L. M. Hafrath, MP SLMC Nominated Member of Parliament |
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