Muslim politics in Sri Lanka

| by A Special Correspondent

( November 20, 2014, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) It is my simple postulate to argue that Muslims in Sri Lanka do not need a communal political party rather Muslims should work alongside with national political parties. I would argue that Muslim congress has done more harm to Muslim community than good. Since the inception of Muslim congress Muslims people have suffered a lot. It can be argued that a separate Muslim political party may be suitable to the Eastern province where Muslims live as a majority or predominantly and yet to have Muslim political party in the rest of the country is not a good idea. It would not benefit Muslims a lot rather it could do lots of harms to Muslims who live in those area. Since the introduction of Muslim congress Singhalese political parties begun to discriminate against Muslims in the other part of the country. This is because they began do communal politics as Ashraf did. In multi-ethnic countries it would be dangerous to have political parties in communal lines or ethnic lines. It would do more harm for minority people. That is what happens to Muslims in recent time. Muslims are isolated and marginalised by both national parties in Sri Lanka because of Ashraf’s creation of Muslim congress.

Ironically, some politicians in the south still follow this type of communal politics. Muslims congress should not function outside of the East province. It does not make any sense politically to have Muslim congress or any Muslim political party on its own outside the North and East. Muslim community in Europe and USA do not create their own political parties rather they work with national political parties to safeguard the interests of their own community. It is a common sense that the power is in the hands of the majority. Therefore, it is in the interest of minority community to work along with the majority political parties. In the same way, Muslims in Sri Lanka should work with two major political parties to protect and safeguard basic rights of Muslim community rather than creating their own parties which yield no power. It was the wisdom of our previous generations to work with the major political parties. We cannot follow the footpath of Tamils in this case. Their case is different from ours and their problem is different from ours. They could justify their case and also they have the control of vast geographical area and yet, we do not have such domination in any sense and except a few enclaves in the east.

We should engage and contribute into national politics. Indeed, all political parties should serve people without any racial discrimination. Ideal politicians will work for people without any discrimination and yet, in Sri Lanka communal sentiment takes preference. People are brain washed to think in communal line. Tamils think in the interest of their community alone, Sinhalese think in the interest of their community alone, Muslims think in the interest of their community alone. If there is the ground reality who is going to think in the national interest? This is indeed a dangerous trend. As result of this approach into politics we have done great damage to Sri Lanka.

There are nearly 18 Muslim members of parliament today in Sri Lanka. Some of them are with ruling party and some others are with opposition party. Muslim community in Sri Lanka is very badly humiliated and conned by this present government. Particularly, Goata is behind all anti- Muslim activities. It is not a secret that all anti-Muslim activities of BBS are well planned and cunningly executed with the support of Goata. This is an open secret and law enforcement agents in Sri Lanka know this but they cannot do anything to stop it. In this political background how would any Muslim support this government? How could shameless Muslim MPs go behind this government? How could any sound person fall into this crafty trap of this government once again? NO time Muslims are humiliated like this in the entire Muslim history in Sri Lanka. Some of the greedy Muslim politicians to save their seats in the parliament behaved irresponsibly in the face of anti- Muslim activities of BBS. Shameless Hezbollah, Ataullah and Hakeem and some other Muslim MPs are hell bent in supporting this ruthless government that unleashed atrocities against Muslims recently and I wonder what types of Muslims are these Muslim political criminals . Neither have they worked for the national interest of our nation nor for the communal interest of Muslim rather do they work for their personal interest sand to make money out of politics. They are in the same boat like MR and co.

They could not do anything to stop the atrocities again Muslims. These are some of the hopeless Muslim politicians. They are a disgrace for Muslims in Sri Lanka. They greatly failed to protect Muslim community recent time when violence broke out in some Muslim villages in the south. As a result of this Muslim community is frustrated with these people.

Muslim community should think why this pathetic condition is?

I think that most of our Muslim MPs are not qualified to be as Muslim representatives in Parliament. Neither they have qualifications nor Islamic sentiment as our previous leaders had during the time. Look at the qualities and characteristics of leaders such as JB Jaya, Razik Fareed, Azeez, Badi and Hameed. All had good academic and professional background. They earned the good will of people not only the goodwill of Muslims but also the good will of the nation. Yet today what we have is a group of Muslim MP and some of them even do not have basic educational qualifications or professional qualifications. I'm sorry to say this yet this is the true reality of our political leadership. Except a few, most of Muslim MPs do not have any solid academic background to speak eloquently in parliament. How could they speak for Muslims and how could they contribute to any debate in parliament? Please listen to some of their speech to gauge the quality of their talks and speeches. It is a disgrace not only for the Muslim community but also for the entire nation of Sri Lanka. I wonder how could these foolish people managed to get into parliament.

Unfortunately, many Muslim representatives in parliament today are unqualified and unprofessional people. They do not have charismatic leadership skills to serve this country. Some of them are not elected by people rather they came to power from the back door or through some sort of nomination. Neither country nor Muslim community benefit from them.


This situation is really a shame not only for Muslims but also for the country as well. I think it is in the interest of the entire nation we should send some qualified people into parliament. Those elected into parliaments are representatives of 20 million Sri -Lankans. They should have some basic qualifications and qualities such as truthfulness, honesty and truthfulness. Today who do we have in our parliament? We have drug dealers, robbers and murderous people. What can we expect from them and how do they legislate and what can they legislate for people? Most of them have been milking the system and getting maximum benefit from their position. Politics today has become money making machine in Sri Lanka. Look what was the financial situation of some of these MPs before they came into Parliament. Most of them hail from poor family background and yet within a short period of time they become rich. Where do they get money and how do they get money?

We should elect qualified people into Parliament. We should do this in the interest of our country, Muslim community have got some talented and skilful young people. We should elect them into Parliament to serve the entire nation. In my opinion only two Muslim political leaders who could do some constructive contributions for the nation and for Muslim community are Imthiyas Bakir and Kabir Hasheem. All other Muslim politicians are hopeless and selfish people. All others are milking the system to fill into their pockets with public money. It is the collective duty of Muslim community to get rid of these Muslim political hooligans and to replace them with young blood. It is duty of Muslim community to make some political reformation and change. We should nominate some professionally educated people into parliament so that they could serve not only for our community but also to the entire nation. This is a timely need a religious duty. Muslim community leaders should think about this, discuss this issue and find some suitable candidates for the forthcoming election.