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Muslims expect positive overtures from President
November 26, 2019, 12:00 pm

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by Latheef Farook


Following the election of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Dinesh Gunawardena said both "Rauff Hakeem and Rishad Bathiudeen will not be part of the new government." This was repeated by both Wimal Weerawansa and Udaya Gammanpila.


The Muslim community is not concerned whether the government gives Rauf Hakeem and Rishard Badurdeen ministerial portfolios or not. What the Muslims need is for the new government to understand their plight, stop violence against them, and attend to their grievances.


Time was when the Sri Lankan Muslim community was not interested in forming a separate party. As everyone knows, the Muslims were part and parcel of the two major national political parties—the UNP and the SLFP.


For example, respected Muslim leader Dr M. C. M. Kaleel was Chairman and Treasure of the UNP. Veteran Muslim politician Sir Razik Fareed, who spent his wealth on the community and fought for Muslim rights, while maintaining healthy relations with the Sinhalese community, was with the main political parties.


It was the short-sighted racist politics of the two main national parties that forced Muslim to support when some ambitious individuals decided to exploit the helplessness of the community  by forming a separate political party.


Even in this case several Muslim politicians in the south warned the SLMC founder the late A. H. M. Ashraf of the grave consequences of starting a separate party to those Muslims who were living in peace and harmony in the midst of Sinhalese in the rest of the country.


Finally, it was the arrogant dismissal of Muslims  by the late President J. R. Jayewardene when he said that Muslims could remain in the government or leave when a delegation led by All Ceylon Muslim League leader Dr M.C.M Kaleel met him and appealed not to allow Israelis into the country in view of their century’s old hostility and crime records against Muslims.


In the end, Jayewardene’s arrogance, Indian conspiracies to divide Tamil and Muslim communities and Ashraf’s desire to have a political platform led to the birth of Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, SLMC, on 11 February 1988.


The SLMC came with the slogan of Islam and unity. Islam disappeared at birth when Ashraf fled Kalmunai to seek refuge at a lawyer’s house in Colombo. The unity could be seen in the division of SLMC into more than half a dozen groups. SLMC politicians openly and shamelessly shifted their alliances during the recent presidential elections when they were all, as many accused, bought over by different sides.


Corruption has been an integral part of SLMC from its inception though Ashraf had done a lot to help the community. However the power struggle within the party after his death was exploited by the Sinhala leadership to throw baits—ministerial portfolios--and divide the SLMC.


Over the years today the SLMC and its splinter groups became notorious for selling the community for positions and perks, causing the Muslims to lose respect.


Muslims suffered immense during the ethnic war. Once the war ended in 2009 they expected peace and a return to normal life. However to their shock disgusting violence was unleashed against them under the Rajapaksa government. This violence continued with greater intensity under Maithri-Ranil’s disastrous government.


In the aftermath of Easer Sunday bombings and killings, while Muslims were subjected to violence, dogs were taken into mosques by soldiers wearing shoes and hundreds of Muslims were taken into custody for no valid reason, shameless Muslim politicians invited Maithri and Ranil   for their family functions.


In the same way, while Muslims in and around Kandy were fightened  expecting anything to happen due to the tense atmosphere built up by  fasting monk here in Colombo controversial moulavi was seen breaking Ifthar fast with  former president Sirisena.


Thus Muslims were fed up with their politicians and the equally controversial half-baked mullahs.


On the one hand, Muslim politicians abandoned the community in their rush for positions. On the other hand, implementing its evil racist agenda, government persecuted them.


This is the reason why the Muslims are least worried about ministerial portfolios for their politicians. All what they expect from the new President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is to create an environment with new overtures where they could live in peace.


They are eagerly expecting positive signs from President Gotabaya and his government though it includes many known for their hatred towards Muslims.

http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=214398

ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ ජනගහනයෙන් 10% ක් පමණ වන මුස්ලිම් ජනතාවගේ මනාපය ලබා ගැනීම පිණිස ප්‍රධාන අපේක්ෂකයන් දෙදෙනා උත්සහයක නිරතව සිටිති.

මුස්ලිම් ජනතාවගේ ඡන්දය ලබා ගැනීම පිණිස එක් අපේක්ෂකයෙකුගේ ප්‍රබල ආධාරකරුවෙක් ඔවුන්ට තර්ජනය කළ බවට ද චෝදනාවක් එල්ල වී තිබේ.

එසේ තර්ජනය කළ බව පැවසෙන මුස්ලිම් ජාතික නීතිවේදියා එය ප්‍රතික්ෂේප කරන නමුත් තමන් එම වීඩියෝ පටය දුටු බව මැතිවරණ කොමිසමේ කොමසාරිස් රත්නජීවන් හූල් ද පවසයි.

මුස්ලිම් ජනතාව ආකර්ෂණය කර ගැනීම පිණිස අනෙක් ප්‍රතිවාදී අපේක්ෂකයා ද ප්‍රබල උත්සහයක නිරතව සිටිනු පෙනේ.

ඒ, මහ මැතිවරණයකදීටත් වඩා විශේෂයෙන් ම ජනපතිවරණයකදී දෙමළ සහ මුස්ලිම් ඇතුළු සුළු ජාතීන්ගේ ඡන්දය තීරණාත්මක වන බැවිනි. ඇතැම් දේශපාලන විශ්ලේෂකයන් පවසන පරිදි විධායක ජනාධිපති ක්‍රමය යටතේ "රජුන් තනන්නේ" ඔවුන් වන බැවිනි.

විශේෂයෙන් ම පාස්කු ඉරිදා ප්‍රහාරවලින් අනතුරුව ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ බහුතර මුස්ලිම් ජනතාව දෙපාර්ශවයකට මැදි වී සිටින බව තරුණ නීතිවේදියෙකු සහ මාධ්‍යවේදියෙකු වන හෆීල් ෆාරිස් (Hafeel Farisz) ගේ අදහසය.

සාමාන්‍ය මුස්ලිම් ජනතාව අන්තවාදී මුස්ලිම් කණ්ඩායම්වල සහ සිංහල ජාතිකවාදීන්ගේ පීඩනයට ලක් වී සිටින බව බීබීසී සිංහල සේවය සමග අදහස් දක්වමින් කියා සිටි ඔහු, "ශ්‍රී ලංකාවේ මුස්ලිම් ජනතාවට කවදාවත් මේ තරම් අනාරක්ෂිතයි කියල හැඟීමක් දැනිල නෑ," යනුවෙන් ද සඳහන් කළේය.

මුස්ලිම් ජනතාව ඉල්ලන්නේ කුමක් ද?

නීතිඥ හෆීල් ෆාරිස් පවසන පරිදි,

1. සාමය සහ ආරක්ෂාව මෙවර මැතිවරණයේදී මුස්ලිම් ජනතාවගේ ප්‍රධානම අපේක්ෂාව වී තිබෙන අතර,
2. තවදුරටත් අනෙක් ජන කොටස්වලින් වෙන් වී (segregate) තනිව වාසය කළ නොහැකි බවත් දැනට වඩා රටේ අනෙක් ජන කොටස් සමග මුසු වී වාසය කළ යුතු (inclusivity) බවත් ඔවුහු වටහාගෙන සිටිති.

ඇමෙරිකා එක්සත් ජනපදයේ වාසය කරන ශ්‍රී ලාංකික මුස්ලිම් ක්‍රියාකාරිනියක වන සොරායා ඩීන් පවසන්නේ, යළිත් වරක් දේශපාලකයන්ගේ හෝ ආගමික අනුග්‍රහයක් සහිතව මුස්ලිම් ජනතාවට එරෙහිව ප්‍රහාර එල්ල නොවනු ඇතැයි යන්න තමන්ගේ ප්‍රධානම අපේක්ෂාව බවය.

• When ITAK, after a prolonged silence, decided to support Sajith in their last party meeting in Vavuniya, one of the mothers representing the families of disappeared tried to throw a slipper at the TNA Leader Sampathan

“We see only Muslim villages have been developed, but not the Tamil villages. The only way for Catholic and Hindu villages to get developed is to vote for Gota.” -Namal Rajapaksa in Mannar.

“We have to act against Muslims. We Tamil youth have to think and act.” - leaflet by Kiran youth front for SLPP.

Mannar voters who are living in Puttalam are banned to come in hired private buses to cast their votes – Assistant Election Commissioner, Mannar.

If Muslims do not vote for Gota they will get it properly – Ali Sabri, PC

Whatever the reason given, in 2005 the vast majority of the Tamils from the North and East and even in Colombo did not go to the polling booths to exercise their franchise. The result, as they say, is history. Yet it is imperative for that history to now be reflected upon seriously. The President who got elected partly due to the decision taken by Tamils not to exercise their franchise ruled over the entire country for the next 10 years, with grave effects for all. On the eve of another Presidential election, where some are calling for new boycotts or putting up candidates deliberately to draw votes from the main contenders, the lessons of the 2005 boycott are particularly worth considering.

We have only five more days before we know, what fate lies ahead for minorities in this country. In every campaign platform in the north and east, what I see is racism and hatemongering centred around minorities. Divide and rule has been the norm of Sinhala Governments since independence, but in this election it has reached a level we have never witnessed before.

The frontline campaigners of SLPP, especially in the north and east, are collecting voters for Gota through outright hate mongering. Their campaigns are all about asking people not to support Sajith because Muslims are with them, or to support Gota because he will put the Muslims in their place. In areas where Karuna, Pillaiyan et al are campaigning, venom is being spit against the Muslims, with appeals to Tamils to vote for Gota if they want to keep the Muslims under control. The irony is that the very same pro-SLPP forces have successfully gotten Hisbullah to use the same language to woo the extremist Muslims against the Tamils and even Sinhalese!

Such tactics are made possible this time in large part because the “Yahapalana” Government failed to deliver on the reforms it promised and left so many in desperate plight as a result.  In the north and east, war-affected communities are being urged not to cast their votes, and being told that whether it is Sajith or Gota, neither is going to solve their issues. When ITAK, after a prolonged silence, decided to support Sajith in their last party meeting in Vavuniya, one of the mothers representing the families of disappeared tried to throw a slipper at the TNA Leader Sampanthan.

On another front, the Muslims are either ridiculed or threatened about the negative consequences of voting for Sajith and the NDF – warnings often given by their own community’s scare mongers.  One of the ongoing scare tactics, to keep voters away, is the confusion created around the dress code of Muslim women. There was a request apparently from the police that the Muslim women wearing the burkha and the nikkab can create panic at the booths thus banning it is vital for a peaceful election. One wonders why this is an issue to begin with, because Muslim women before the Easter Sunday suicide bombings did go to the polling stations, stood in lines and removed their face cover to reveal their identities before voting. They did so during every election without any issues. Given the recent harassment they faced based on their attire in places like Government buildings and public transportation these women, especially those Muslim women living in the areas that were attacked by mobs after the Easter Sunday bombings are really frightened and may not turn up in the same numbers as before.

The October 26th coup in 2018 was a nerve-wracking reminder – especially to the 6,217,162 voters who rejected MR – that the Rajapaksas are willing to bulldoze our most basic democratic institutions to regain what they unexpectedly lost in 2015. Defeating that backdoor entry of MR was possible only because the minority parties – TNA, SLMC, ACMC, and TPA – stuck together and defended democracy. Now the SLPP is trying proactively to stop that minority grouping from helping Sajith get elected. This the SLPP is doing by pitching the Tamils against Muslims. Knowing well that the war-affected minorities will never deliberately wish to bring back to power those whom they blame most for the large-scale atrocities they endured, their tactic seems to be to prevent anti-Gota voters from going to the polling booth by persuading minorities voters that there is no use in electing any Sinhala leader.

The third tactic is to hoodwink the voters who will never mark 1 or X to Gota by getting them to spoil their vote. One group allied to Gotabhaya’s campaign in Batticaloa has told a group of Tamil women to put three Xs to fully exercise their preferential votes knowing that these women will never vote for their candidate.  To begin with almost 2 foot long ballot paper and 35 candidates itself is creating confusion and then the preferential vote of marking 1 to 3 and the option of using X or 1 to 3 is compounding the confusion.

The minorities; Tamils and Muslims are not really convinced by what the candidates are promising and have little enthusiasm to go to the polling station attracted by their policies or manifestos. However, they should drag themselves to the polling booths on November 16 to exercise their right of franchise to participate in electing one or preventing another as citizens of this country whether the one is to be elected is a greater or lesser evil, their ballots should be counted.

*Shreen Abdul Saroor is a human rights activist and founder member of Women’s Action Network.

It’s reported that ITAK officials emerging from a meeting in Vavuniya saw slippers being thrown at them by members of families whose loved ones had gone missing

http://www.dailymirror.lk/news-features/Will-Sri-Lanka-elect-A-president-by-default/131-177615