{"id":36691,"date":"2014-12-27T19:27:43","date_gmt":"2014-12-28T00:27:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=36691"},"modified":"2014-12-27T19:27:43","modified_gmt":"2014-12-28T00:27:43","slug":"three-schools-of-thought-within-muslim-congress-on-question-of-extending-support-for-presidential-candidate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=36691","title":{"rendered":"Three Schools of Thought Within Muslim Congress on Question of Extending Support for Presidential Candidate."},"content":{"rendered":"

By <\/p>\n

Rasika Jayakody
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is no exaggeration to say that the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, the largest Muslim party in the country led by Minister Rauff Hakeem, is experiencing a tough phase. Several years ago the SLMC dubbed itself as \u201cking-makers\u201d of the country\u2019s political sphere. But today the party has found itself in a dilemma where the \u201cking-making\u201d process is concerned. Although the presidential election is just two weeks away, the Muslim Congress is yet to make its final announcement on its stance with regard to the election. Due to this indecisiveness, the party has drawn severe criticism from many quarters of the Muslim community.<\/p>\n

The SLMC, under Hakeem\u2019s leadership, has held many discussions with both parties since the announcement of the presidential election. The first meeting was held with the President and the meeting ended amicably as the Muslim Congress thought they had ample time to make a final decision.<\/p>\n

When they met the President soon after the announcement of the election, the SLMC assumed that the Muslim vote, irrespective of the SLMC\u2019s stance, was strongly gravitated towards the opposition. However, their aim was to use the election as an opportunity to raise the party\u2019s bargaining power and get some concessions ahead of the election. The SLMC thought such concessions would strengthen and increase their vote-base among the Muslim community of Sri Lanka who had serious concerns over the emergence of hardcore Sinhala-Buddhist groups.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

One of their major demands was the separate administrative district for Muslims in the Eastern province. The proposal, at the outset, did not elicit positive response from the UPFA government with many stakeholders of the government raising serious objections over the matter. They also wanted to curtail the activities of certain Sinhala-Buddhist groups who were creating problems between the Sinhalese and Muslim communities. But it was clear to the SLMC Leadership that the government was not keen on delivering those two demands due to obvious reasons.<\/p>\n

At that point, the SLMC turned to the Common Opposition. They assumed that the Common Opposition would show some sort of willingness to consider their demands. Much to their surprise, Common Candidate Maithreepala Sirisena and UNP National Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe did not give the green light to set up a \u201cSeparate Administrative District\u201d for Muslims in the Eastern province. They considered it as an \u201cunnecessary\u201d demand that would create further problems between the Sinhalese and Muslim communities.<\/p>\n

The UNP National Leader made the party\u2019s position clear on the matter even before he met with the SLMC Leader following the announcement of the Presidential Election. UNP National List Parliamentarian Wijeyadasa Rajapakse, who is also the de facto legal advisor of the main opposition party, said in Parliament that the proposal to form a Separate Administrative Council in the East was an unrealistic one.<\/p>\n

When this matter was raised in Parliament in November, Wijeyadasa Rajapakse opined that it is akin to the demand of a separate state propagated by the late Chelvanayagam and Amirthalingam, which led the LTTE to pursue with this demand through an armed struggle. He feared Hakeem\u2019s demand would instigate the Muslim youth to clamor for a separate Muslim unit.<\/p>\n

It seemed as if both President Mahinda Rajapaksa and UNP National Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe had entered into an unspoken agreement to not to give into Hakeem\u2019s \u201cSeparate Administrative Demand\u201d. It was in this context that the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress decided to delay its final decision on the presidential election.<\/p>\n

After that, Hakeem started discussions with many representatives and individuals who were and weren\u2019t affiliated with the party. However, it did not require a lot of wisdom for him to realize that the SLMC rank and file wanted him to step out of the UPFA government. But, the SLMC Leader was also mindful of the possible negative impacts of such a move.<\/p>\n

The SLMC High Command, the supreme decision-making body of the party, had three schools of thought over the stance the party should take on the presidential election.<\/p>\n

A section of the party members were of the view that the party should support the incumbent President with the hope that he would deliver what he has already promised to the Muslim community of Sri Lanka. They asserted that if the Muslim community completely alienated President Mahinda Rajapaksa, there could be a hostile approach from the government towards the Muslim community during his third term. Those who wanted to remain in the government stated that the SLMC should position themselves as the \u2018cushion\u2019 between the government and the Muslim community of Sri Lanka, without creating further problems.<\/p>\n

Another section of the party\u2019s High Command argued that the party should support Common Candidate of the opposition Maithreepala Sirisena as the large majority of Muslim votes are likely to go in favor of the opposition. \u2018We can\u2019t win the election and lose the party,\u201d a stalwart of the SLMC had told during one of the High Command meetings of the party. This group had also expressed fears that there would be a noticeable erosion in the vote-base at the next General Election, if the party did not support the Common Candidate of the opposition.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, there was another quarter who believed that the party should take an independence stance like the JVP and the Tamil National Alliance, without supporting a specific candidate. They opined that the MPs of the party should resign from positions they hold in the government and act as an independent group in Parliament.<\/p>\n

The pendulum swung between these three options without any concrete decision until the cry to defect from the government seemed too powerful. But Hakeem was aware of the fact that the party faced the risk of a possible split if it decided to support the Common Candidate. It was in the grapevine that four of the Parliamentarians of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress had decided to remain in the government, irrespective of the party decision. The SLMC Leader knew that it would be a serious blow to the party, especially just a few months ahead of a Parliamentary election.<\/p>\n

On Monday (22) it looked as if the SLMC Leader had made up his mind to defect from the government. On the same day, Minister Rishad Bathiudeen too decided to extend his support to the Common Opposition and many thought that would also influence the SLMC Leader\u2019s decision. Hakeem was about to announce his final decision on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

On Monday night, Hakeem received an invitation from President Mahinda Rajapaksa to visit Temple Trees for a final round of discussions. During the meeting, Hakeem told the President that he was in a \u201chelpless position\u201d as a number of concerns raised the Muslim community of Sri Lanka still remain un-addressed. He had cited that as the major reason for the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress to leave the government.<\/p>\n

As an immediate short-term solution to Hakeem\u2019s problem, President Rajapaksa promised to resolve the issue surrounding the mosque in Dambulla, which came under attack from hardcore Buddhist groups in 2012. That was a major relief for Hakeem as he desperately needed something to \u201csell\u201d to his community. That was, in other words, the \u201cone good reason\u201d Hakeem required to remain in the government.<\/p>\n

With this promise, Hakeem decided to postpone the announcement of his decision and buy more time. A day after the SLMC Leader\u2019s meeting with President Mahinda Rajapaksa, another high profile meeting took place at the SLMC Leader\u2019s personal residence in Colombo. Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa, one of the most influential Ministers of the UPFA government, attended the meeting and was accompanied by a Senior Presidential Advisor who was also a Cabinet Minister before 2010 General Election. The Senior Presidential Advisor participated in this secret meeting on the grounds that he is a close friend of Justice Minister Rauff Hakeem.<\/p>\n

The meeting had a satisfactory outcome for the government and the SLMC Leader agreed to \u2018soften\u2019 his stance after the Economic Development Minister agreed to look into Hakeem\u2019s grievances. And that was how Hakeem managed to do a 180 degree turn as far as the SLMC stance on the presidential election is concerned.<\/p>\n

The next challenge he faced was to get the party\u2019s unanimous consent to remain in the government. This is the task which he is yet to fulfill. There is a sizable proportion of High Command members in the party who dislike the UPFA government. A question looms large whether they would remain in the SLMC if the party decides to support President Mahinda Rajapaksa.<\/p>\n

Another question has arisen as to whether the SLMC\u2019s decision will make an impact on the party at the forthcoming general election where the party would seek a fresh mandate from the Muslim community of the country. When asked about this, a strongman of the party gave an interesting reply.<\/p>\n

\u201cPolitics is like the weather. It changes. But nobody blames the weather for this trait. Politics is also the same. Therefore, we don\u2019t think our decision with regard to the presidential election will make a negative impact on the party at the next general election,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Nation<\/em><\/p>\n

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By Rasika Jayakody It is no exaggeration to say that the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, the largest Muslim party in the country led by Minister Rauff Hakeem, is experiencing a tough phase. Several years ago the SLMC dubbed itself as \u201cking-makers\u201d of the country\u2019s political sphere. But today the party has found itself in a …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Three Schools of Thought Within Muslim Congress on Question of Extending Support for Presidential Candidate.’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36691"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36691"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36692,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36691\/revisions\/36692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}