Why change now?

Hakeem and SLMC fully supported Executive Presidency

by Noor NIZAM

The political history to the background to Rauf Hakeem supporting the UNF and promising that he will do all that he can to get 80 per cent of the Muslim votes for Sarath Fonseka is a bit puzzling. The question he raised at the 54th UNP convention - “Rajapavulada?, Obepavulada?” was in fact not centred at the Muslim voters or the “Poraaligal” of the SLMC.

Hakeem has been an ardent supporter and strong believer in the political ideology and the constitutionally formulated Executive Office of the President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka - Chapter VII Section (30.1) and (30.2) of 1978. It has been recorded in many documents, media reports, lectures and foreign presentation made by Hakeem to this fact.

Hakeem started to deviate from this stand since he publicly made a joint statement with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) in October 2009 that the office of the Executive Presidency should be abolished. Why a change now to support a Presidential candidate who wants to change the Executive Presidency system?

The late M.H.M. Ashraff stood for the continuity of the Executive Presidency because an Executive President had to have the support of all the communities to govern since his success at the Presidential Election depended considerably on the support of the minorities.

This argument was further strengthened by the current proportional representation system which has indirectly shown that a single party could rarely be able to muster the outright majority on its own to form the Government.

The question to the Muslim electorate and the SLMC supporters/voters/poraaligal now is:

1. Why has Rauf Hakeem begun to dupe us?

2. Where has all his support for the Executive Presidency, which he vehemently suddenly vanish?

3. Has he got the right to reverse the political vision of the late M.H.M. Ashraff who stood for the community of the Office of the Executive Presidency?

4. Though he has the right to support a political candidate of his choice at the Presidential Elections, Rauf Hakeem cannot go by political default to drag the minority of Muslim votes to assure victory to a candidate whose platform is to abolish the Executive Presidency.

In August 2009, a very senior and respected Eastern Province SLMC stalwart and pillar of the party who holds a very senior and highly responsible officially-elected position within the SLMC stated this to the Muslim Guardian:

“The SLMC, which had always advocated for the Executive Presidency, is of the view that it should not be abolished. “We don’t have a ‘hard and fast rule’ with regard to joining the United People’s Freedom alliance Government, and in such an event, we could consider joining on policy basis. However, grievances of Sri lanka’s Muslims have not been addressed at all,” he said. This politician from the Eastern Province added that his party never stood for the division of the country, but aspired for a viable power-sharing arrangement”.He further stated: “We never ever want the country to be divided, but there should be an acceptable power-sharing mechanism, even in predominantly Muslim areas. Only such an arrangement will fulfil the aspiration of the Muslims. Only the Government can give us an assurance that our aspiration too, would be fulfilled.”

Responding to a question, as to what grievances the Muslims are faced with. The SLMC party official said there were many unresolved problems in the Eastern Province.

“We have many grievances, especially in the East. If you take the land issue, over 600,000 acres of land in the province, which earlier belonged to Muslims, have been illegally taken over. In the Northern Province, the entire Muslim population of more than 100,000 was expelled by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 1990. Those expelled are still languishing in camps for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and in temporary houses in the Puttalam district, where they have been for the last 20 years. They have lost everything they had, and should receive adequate compensation. We have got everything on record in detail. As such, they should be resettled immediately and paid sufficient compensation.”

The issue for President Mahinda Rajapaksa is to commit an honest undertaking and a “reasonable’ resolution to the above issues of the Muslims as Sri Lankans to win their votes. (The pledge to vote for Mahinda Rajapaksa is a decided factor of the Muslim electorate).

The question all Muslims and members of voters of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress should ask themselves is, “how can Rauf Hakeem dupe SLMC supporters (poraligal) to vote for Sarath Fonseka who has nothing in common with the SLMC or the minority politics of Sri Lanka.”

The answer is “Let’s vote for President Mahinda Rajapaksa at this Presidential Election and save the Executive Presidency that will be most beneficial to the Muslim and minority communities and then use the goodwill of the Executive Presidency to resolve our issues, the ‘Muslim Factor’ amicably. The writer is a long standing political and peace activist who has been a senior party member and district organiser of the SLFP and later the SLMC in the Trincomalee district for many years, till May, 2000.

After a successful public and private sector career, he is now domiciled in Canada. At present he is engaged with McMaster University, Hamilton in Canada and has been a member of the teaching staff of the Department of Communication Studies and Multimedia, Faculty of Humanities, since 2002.

He’s presently engaged in political communication research with the same university. The agenda for peace in Sri Lanka and concerns of the Muslim factor are his primary engagements.

Being a Tamil-speaking minority Muslim, he is also very much concerned about the Eastern Province of Sri Lanka.