This is the way you thought to humiliate us - Imthiaz

The following is the speech by Imthiaz Bakeer Markar at the Working Committee meeting of the UNP held on 09.04.2006 with Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe in the Chair.

Dear Leader (of UNP),

"I wish to state that if Mr. Mahinda Wijesekara has criticised your leadership in public, I am afraid I would not endorse it. In the proper forum to do it is this Working Committee. But the action you arbitrarily took to suspend him from the Working Committee and to remove him as chief organiser of Matara smacks of a dictatorial attitude on your part. You shouldn't have taken action, such an action on your own, although unfortunately, the Constitution of the party permits such an action.

"It is acknowledged that the late-comers to the Party are the people who are making a big noise, agitating for the reformation in the party. Your action would prove that you are taking revengeful action to penalise such persons. It gives a wrong signal to others. "This is not done in good spirit of democracy which our party is so committed to uphold. Therefore, I would earnestly urge you to reconsider this decision of yours and help democratic principles which prevail within the party circle.

"I would like to now speak on a very important subject. Since you assumed leadership, the party has come under close scrutiny and increased criticism had been levelled against you, particularly after loosing several elections - two presidential elections, three general elections and nine provincial councils and local government elections. "I blew up your image among UNPers by equating with Tony Blair when you started the reformation of the party. That is how I portrayed your image. "We have to now earnestly consider where the fault lies, whether it lies among the MPs, party organisers, parshada leaders or the leadership itself. All members in the Working Committee would agree that there is a degeneration, indiscipline among all sections of the party and it is not moving towards the desired direction under your leadership.

This is a party founded by the father of the nation - Hon. D. S. Senanayake, and nurtured and fostered in excellent directions by men of the caliber of Dudley Senanayake, J. R. Jayewardene and R. Premadasa.

"They gave correct leadership to their followers and brought our party on correct directions by recognising the multi-ethnic and multi-religious character of all the communities. After you assumed the leadership you have dealt a blow to the religious aspects of various communities. You stopped the good practice of "Remembering the Religion" (Agama Shikireema) at the commencement of all meetings.

"When you became the leader, I organised a grand meeting at Beruwala and I was overwhelmed to see such a large gathering assembled to receive you and to greet you. When Agama Sihikireema" was announced, you became rather uncomfortable and shouted at me and said "What is this nonsense... Don't you understand that there is a security threat on my life and I do not want such practices, stop it," I was shocked and was taken aback. The crowd felt very bad about it. This was in fact a total reversal of the importance given to religious observances at all meetings and functions of the party in the past. I was highly dejected.

"You made me a Minister and sought to humiliate and insult me at every turn. You denied me the independence to work freely. Through a coterie of your henchmen, you placed 'blockades' at every turn in the exercise of my functions. It was so frustrating, but true to my loyalty to the party, I eschewed such embarrassment. "You have always shown a negative attitude as far as the Muslim problems are concerned, particularly, on international affairs.

"When we in the Opposition I moved in a private member motion supporting the Palestine cause, which was seconded by Hon. Mahinda Rajapaksa. Mr. Azwer also spoke on the motion. You came out, tapped me on the back and told me "Imthiaz you have made a good contribution.... Keep it up." "But when Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa as the Leader of the Opposition moved a similar motion in the House, you prevented me and Azwer from speaking on the motion. When Mr. Milinda Moragoda intervened on our behalf and spoke to you on the telephone you told him that no Ministers should speak on this motion. At our request when the leader of the House Hon. W. J. M. Lokubandara appealed to you to allow us to speak, your terse reply was that if they should speak, then they should resign their portfolios. "What happened later? Mr. Rauf Hakeem, who was a Minister in your Cabinet, spoke on the motion. Sadly, we in the UNP became a laughing stock in the public eye. This is the way you thought to humiliate us.

"When the whole world was against the aggression of the US in Iraq, you defying all expectations justified such dastardly action on the part of the USA in your speech before the United Nations. The whole Muslim community and others were aghast. We were highly disappointed, but we Muslims in the UNP, made all moves to appease the public and take the wind out of the sail, simply because we had the party interest at heart.

"Over the years, we have always observed your taking a negative stand on Arab - Islamic affairs and international relationship. On several occasions we requested you to undertake a goodwill mission to Saudi Arabia and other Middle East countries. You brush us aside, and remarked, that you had other important things to do at home. Your attitudes towards Sri Lanka - Arab friendship was much to be desired, then.

"When I requested you several times to reconstitute the Religious Advisory Committees of the Sri Lanka Broadcasting Corporation, you refused to do so. I had already contacted highly respected bhikkhus, e.g. Ven. Maduluwawe Sobitha Thera and other Hindu, Muslim, Christian scholars to serve on such boards. When the Catholic Bishops wanted to see me, you asked me to dodge them. This is the way you treated religions.

On the VAT scam, I was again portrayed as someone who had a hand in it. I do not mean that you together with Chairman Malik Samarawickrema was the source for the Editor of the Leader newspaper to publish my photograph along with the alleged perpetrators of the crime. But everybody knows that the Leader is not the paper of Mahinda Rajapaksa or the SLFP, or the JVP. But it is the paper of Mr. Ranil Wickremesinghe. It is run by the Editor on the agenda drawn by you. This is a fact that everyone knows. Therefore, try to besmirch my good name conduct, my sincerity and innocence by requesting him to carry my photograph along with the so-called sinners, is a downgraded act. I am suffering from a great sense of frustration and pain of mind.

'I have nothing to do with this VAT scandal. It is true that Kamil Kuthubdeen and Hamza Kuthubdeen are my friends. They associated with me as much as they associated with you, and in fact, Hamza worked in the Media Unit of the UNP at Marcus Fernando Mawatha. Our Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya, Saman Attaudahetti, Dr. Ganganath Dissanayake, John Amaratunga and others were also closely associated with Hamza. When I became Media Minister, I took Hamza and seven others to work under my Ministry, because, they have been loyally serving the party in the Media Unit. I appointed Hamza as my Secretary, after consulting you.

"It is also a fact that Dr. Jayatillake was a batchmate of mine in the University. When I entered the University, he was the one who saved me from ragging by other undergraduates. Although he had left leanings, I thought he was supporting the UNP at the grassroots level. He had a liking for me from the beginning. The other undergraduates wanted me not to repeat at the University, what I did at Ananda College. Jayathilake was one among others who fully supported my activities to promote the UNP ideals at Ananda and at other universities.

Apart from that I had no hand in any VAT activities with him, as suggested by the Leader.

"When you asked me to rely on my friends to launch the "Nam Nadu" a Tamil Party Newspaper, I brought Kamil to you and he made donation, to you to start the paper. You gave him a receipt for it. "It is also a known fact that millions of rupees were given by them to you for your Presidential Election Campaign. This money was distributed among some of our electoral organisers, by Tissa Attanayake, Harisson, Kabir Hashim and A. R. M. Abdul Cader. So much as far as this matter is concerned, "I am a true UNPer, and have struggled to build this party from my childhood. I am saying all these things within the four walls of this room. I am much relieved by being able to give vent to my feelings today before you.

"I do not speak anything in public to tarnish your image. I am saying everything openly. I have a clear conscience. I am speaking to the conscience of all my colleagues here. From my heart I speak to their heads. I leave it to everyone of you to come to your own conclusions of my utterances and decide whether they are right or wrong.

"May Divine Power help us all to realise the truth and see the light. Thanking you.