Hakeem leading Muslims up the gum tree - Rishad & Ameer

by Dhaneshi YATAWARA

Minister Bathiudeen	Minister Ali

It is the Muslim community of the North and East who voted mostly for the President though the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress was poisoning people’s mind with false and deadly ideologies, says Ministers of the All Ceylon Muslim Congress, Rishad Bathiudeen and Ameer Ali. “The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress has betrayed its predecessors and the Muslim community not only in the recent election but also in the past,” Minister Rishad Bathiudeen added.

Rishad Bathiudeen, Minister of Resettlement and Disaster Relief Services

Q: How will the resettlement and development work continue in aftermath of the recent Presidential elections?

A: It will definitely continue as planned without any changes. In fact more attention will be paid as more people are living in these areas. It will follow the same procedure. We will initiate all the resettlement and development programs immediately after de-mining is completed in a particular area.

Q: Do you think the true effort of the Government to rebuild the North and East was conveyed to the people?

A: This message was not conveyed to the people effectively by the government administrative system. People will only receive the benefits but they are not aware from where these benefits have come from. These people have no other means of communication other than what they have been informed by these officials. Because of the prolonged war situation our grass root level political base could not function thus there was very little representation in most of these areas.

Q: How do you view the results given by the Northerners and Easterners in this Presidential Election?

A: The people have selected President Mahinda Rajapaksa. 56% of the Muslim community has elected the President. There was definitely an increase. President Mahinda Rajapaksa won 123,156 more votes in this election compared to that of 2005. It is very positive sign, considering the opposition campaign giving false hopes to people to re-merge the North and East and many more. President Mahinda Rajapaksa gained 123,156 votes more in a backdrop where all the 22 Tamil National Alliance Members of Parliament were involved in their propaganda. Yet the Northerners and Easterners voted for President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

President won the postal votes. This shows the State employees who knew very well the efforts put in by the Government, voted for the President. They very well knew the development works that were taking place in their villages and home towns. It was those people who were living in the resettling areas, were tricked by extremist groups.

In Digamadulla electorate 170,000 Muslim people were registered as Muslim voters and out of them 115,000 voted. From this group 58,000 people voted for President Mahinda Rajapaksa. In Batticaloa out of the 48,000 Muslims who voted 35,000 elected President Rajapaksa. Then in Trincomalee out of the total 50,000 Muslim voters 25,000 elected President Rajapaksa. And in the Northern Province, out of the 25,000 total Muslim voters of the Vanni electorate 15,000 voted for President and in Jaffna out of the total turn out of 2700 more than half voted for the President.

If the Tamil National Alliance did not pollute the minds of the people and let the people think and elect freely the results would have been more positive.

Q: With resettlement progressing, more and more villages and towns emerging in the North how do you plan to set up a solid base for political representation, especially for the Muslim community?

A: As the communities are settling down now, people will come forward selecting their representatives. We concentrate only on representing people with fairness and justice. All need to be treated equally. We encourage those people who are supporting the All Ceylon Muslim Congress to come forward as the time has come for the communities to strengthen themselves.

Q: What is your next step in laying a proper communication line between the Government and the general public of the area?

A: So far the requirements were communicated through the District and Divisional Secretaries, Grama Niladhris. Now we need to set up the political representation as well like all other parts of the country. With the general elections, provincial elections that are yet to come we will be able to strengthen the political representation.

Q: Rumours have been spread that Sri Lanka Muslim Congress leader Rauf Hakeem will join the Government. What is your comment?

A: He will not be welcome. After Hakeem taking over the Muslim Congress following the tragic death of M.H.M. Ashraff its ideologies have been twisted. I would like to tell the people that Hakeem is not carrying on the valuable philosophy of late Ashraff. He even changed allegiance at a crucial point of the budget vote a few years ago. Hakeem does not think of bringing betterment to the people as our predecessors did. So I humbly request those who believe in the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress not to fall in to this trap.

Ameer Ali - Minister of Disaster Relief Services

Q: How do you see the response of Northerners and Easterners in the recent Presidential election?

A: First of all I must say the people voted with great enthusiasm. And no one can challenge the vote for President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Especially the vote of the Muslim community of these two provinces shows a significant increase with the total turnout of 134,000. And it must be especially mentioned that majority were the women who voted. We believe that it is because the woman of a family is the one who knows very well the hardships they endured during the height of the war. There is no doubt about the positive response for President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s policies. People have commended the development work taking place under the guidance of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Q: But the Muslim Congress seems to be having a different view?

A: The Muslim Congress has lost its vote base in these areas. They are counting their number of votes coupled with the votes given to the United National Party. The Muslim Congress alone cannot win.

Q: Then what is the actual situation?

A: Rauf Hakeem is twisting the facts to favour his betterment. If he really analyzes the situation he will perfectly understand how the downturn of votes happened. Even during the past he twisted every chance he came across.

During Chandrika Kumaratunga’s time he showed results counting with the votes given for the People’s Alliance. Another time, he hid behind the UNP votes and showed the Muslim community a false situation as if all these votes for the Congress. This time he tried to use the Tamil National Alliance in to the Party and use their votes as the votes for Muslim Congress.

This time Sampanthan, TNA leader has specifically said that he agrees to work together for the elections but not to collectively count the vote for them. Yet, Hakeem is trying to contest for the elections under a common symbol with the TNA. I believe Sampanthan, being a veteran politician, will not get caught to Hakeem’s agenda this time.

Q: Do you mean to say that the Tamil and Muslim populace were tricked by the opposing parties?

A: Definitely they were. They showed these Muslim and Tamil people that Sarath Fonseka will be the winner. They created a false image about Sarath Fonseka bringing in harmful extremist ideas. Remerging North and East and ideas promoting the terrorist ideologies were key factors. This was largely carried by the Muslim Congress in the Northern and Eastern areas. They infected these people with this idea. They normalized the development work President Rajapaksa carried out in those areas.

Q: What would be the situation in the North and East in the upcoming General Elections?

A: People have now realized the false propaganda they were blanketed with during the Presidential Election. Thus, people will respond correctly to those who cheated last time. There can be no debatable factor in it.

If Sampanthan is a true politician he should have allowed the people to cast their vote at their own free will.

He and the TNA did not let that happen. They forced their thoughts and ideologies on them. People are well aware now that they were cheated by TNA and Muslim Congress members. We will be able to see a very different result.

Q: As the people of the North and East are still struggling to lead normal lives after facing great many difficulties. Thus they become a vulnerable group to extremist groups with harming ideologies like separatism and terrorism. How are you going to protect your people from these evil effects?

A: It is because of this war that people were segmented into races and groups. Earlier, there were no such differences as Sinhala, Muslim and Tamil. This terrorism made a huge distance between the people of different ethnicities.

This is the main factor. And secondly, this electoral system which counts votes according to the ethnicity is a contributing factor. The previous system allowed a Tamil majority elected a Muslim candidate to power or a Tamil candidate to come in to power with a majority of Muslim votes. For example in Borella where the majority is Sinhala it elected M.H. Mohammad.

Then in the good old days K.W. Devanayagam, former Minister of Justice, was elected by the majority of Muslim voters in the Batticaloa district. We must eliminate destructive forces that would bring evil to the country and its people. The country should be protected first. If the country is not protected there will be no place for us to live, to do politics or to carry out development even to protest or strike. We strongly believe that the only person who understands the situation properly is President Mahinda Rajapaksa. That is the reason why we will support him without any condition. It is to protect the country.

Q: Why do you believe that President Mahinda Rajapaksa is the leader who can bring long lasting peace and harmony to Sri Lankans?

A: He is the only one and we have no doubt about that. He is always ready to listen and he encourages us, as people’s representatives, to bring our people’s problems, difficulties to his notice.

His solemn attitude towards our issues is very extraordinary and the reactions are fair equally treating every citizen. We can climb the ladder as one country, as Sri Lankans under his leadership.