Who will be blessed, who will be damned

Allah will decide

Minister Fowzie in an interview with The Sunday Times also accused Mr Ashraff of misusing funds and declared that the SLMC is not a powerful party.

Following are excerpts:

Q: Why did you suddenly make a statement challenging Mr Ashraff and the SLMC ?

A: Mr. Ashraff had told a Sunday newspaper that he decides the fate of the PA. He went on to say that with the PA he would lose what he could get. He said if he contests on his own he could bring 11 seats whereas under the PA banner he would get only seven seats. He also said he could form a government and destroy a government. 

I told him that it was not only him but we were all responsible in forming the PA Government. The LSSP, the CP, the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna and the CWC all played a big role. My challenge was since he claims he is strong why doesn't he contest on his own and get these eleven seats. 

I have promised to resign if he gets more than five seats.

Q: How did you judge that they would only get five seats ?

A: It would be less than five seats. Here you can see the people from the Eastern Province (He points out at people who have called over at his office to show their solidarity with him). I am not an Eastern Province MP. They all rally round me because they know that Mr. Ashraff has a dictatorial attitude that they don't like. He has lost his popularity.

I also said it wouldn't have been easy for him to go to Amparai if he wasn't a minister. He goes there with a lot of security. He misuses the funds that are given to him and more than 50 vehicles are used when he goes to Amparai. 

Q: If the SLMC pulls out don't you think the PA would be weakened? 

A: I don't think so. The SLMC is not a powerful party. The SLMC has been surviving on SLFP votes. Last time we didn't contest and we gave our support to him in certain areas.

Q: Minister D.M. Jayaratne, has said those were your personal comments and it was not the party's comments. Do you feel they have let you down ?

A: No, no, no, they have not let me down. I have the right to make my own observations. This is my personal view and that of the people. I didn't say they were the PA's views.

Q: Minister Mangala Samaraweera and Minister S.B. Dissanayake have been trying to pursue Minister Ashraff not to resign ? Do you feel they are going behind him?

A: There is nothing wrong in asking him to come back. Because my President is the only one who has been able to keep everybody together. If you think of the past, most of the coalitions broke down. But not this coalition and they will do everything to keep it that way.

Q: What do you feel about the challenge that minister Ashraff has thrown back at you? If he is to come back, you have to go out of the cabinet. 

A: My fate has to be decided by All Mighty Allah. I believe in Allah and if Allah thinks that I should not be in the cabinet, then I would accept it. But Mr. Ashraff has no right to tell my President to remove me. Because it is the prerogavtive of the President to appoint Ministers, not Mr. Ashraff.. 

Q: Observers say the PA would lose if the SLMC moves out. What do you feel?

A: Today the minority community is with the PA. We are getting more Muslim and Tamil votes than we got in 1994. 

Q: What kind of support do you think you have in the Ampara district ? 

A: We would always have the SLFP base. Mr. Ashraff sold the religion and the holy Koran to come to this position. Therefore the SLFPers are very angry and his own people are angry. The people who voted him are angry. For example in the Akkraipattu electorate the SLFP candidate got 12,000 and he got about 7,000 votes. That shows that the SLFP is more popular than Mr. Ashraff.

Q: There were reports that the President was trying to patch things up. (discussions). Did she speak to you? 

A: No. My President is a very reasonable person. She has not invited me upto now for a discussion. 

Q: Last time the PA had only a one seat majority. Do you think they can manage it without the SLMC this time ?

A: You know with one seat majority we were able to run the Government for the past six years. We got the blessings of all the parties other than the Tamil parties and we will get the same blessings this time too.

Who will be blessed, who will be damned

By Nilika de Silva

This week, SLMC leader, who flew to the holy Islamic cities of Mecca and Medina, demanded a heavy price for his party's return to the PA fold – sack his Muslim colleague and Transport Minister, A.H.M. Fowzie. Only then would he and his colleagues withdraw their resignations from portfolios as Minister and Deputy Ministers respectively, Mr Ashraff made it clear.

But Mr. Fowzie was adamant he was right. "People in the eastern province no longer like him because they know he has a dictatorial attitude," he told The Sunday Times.

Mr Fowzie said the Muslim Congress leader's anger towards him was because of remarks he made in an interview with a Sunday newspapers. He had declared that he decides the fate of the PA. "What he says is that if his party contests on their own, they would win 11 seats. If they contest under the PA banner, he will only get seven seats. To compensate for the so called loss, he wants four SLMC members on the national list," Mr. Fowzie pointed out.

"So I told him, not only you, we are all responsible for forming the PA Government – the LSSP, CP, the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna, the Ceylon Workers Congress. 

I asked him if you are a strong man, why don't you contest on your own and prove that you can get eleven seats," pointed out Mr. Fowzie. "I still say I will resign if he gets more than five seats. I will retire from politics," he asserted. (See interview on this page)

Mr Fowzie's remarks were to prompt Mr. Ashraff to hand deliver his resignation to Temple Trees. But, the State media was quick to announce that President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga had not accepted the resignation. The very next day, Mr. Ashraff took wing to Mecca and Medina.

If he fired salvos from there, the 12 year old SLMC surpassed its old and established rivals like the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and the United National Party (UNP) to take the political war to cyber space. They opened a website on Thursday (WWW.SLMC.ORG) continued their campaign.

The main site introduced Mr. Ashraff as "the leader who brought a new dimension to the (sic) Sri Lankan politics."

The main story on the news site was headlined SLMC LEADER RESIGNS AFTER HE WAS CHALLENGED BY MINISTER AHM FOWZIE. Below it is a statement which the website said was delivered by the official spokesman of the SLMC. 

Giving the history of the resignation of Mr. Ashraff and two Deputy Ministers from his party, some of the interesting points made in the statement:

"….the President and Ministers like Hon. Mangala Samaraweera, Hon. Dissanayake (the present Secretary of the SLFP), Hon. Alavi Mowlana and other Ministers of the ruling Government earnestly requested him not to resign or contest separately.

"The leader and his party members were not prepared to accept this request and proceed along. However, according to the official information available, it is not the President has not accepted the resignation though she has received it.

"The leader has urgently arranged a pilgrimage to Mecca and left the island early hours of August 22 Political analysts believe this move by the leader was aimed at getting away from the government circles that would try to influence him.

"Meanwhile, the extra-ordinary high command meeting held on August 23 endorsed the resignation of the leader and the deputy ministers M.L.A.M. Hisbullah, U.L.M. Mohideen and decided to quit the PA."

There was another extra-ordinary step Mr. Ashraff had taken amidst the crisis with the PA. He had ordered the suspension of four SLMC MPs – Dr. I.M. Ilyas (Jaffna), U.L.M. Mohideen, M. M. Zuhair and A.K. Akbar. No reasons for their suspension were given except a brief explanation that it was on disciplinary grounds.

None of the four suspended MPs were willing to speak. But The Sunday Times learnt the MPs were bitter about what they call "the dictatorial attitude" of their leader. They are learnt to have complained that the party rank and file is not consulted on important matters and decisions were being made solely by Mr. Ashraff.

They argue, this places the Muslim community in an embarrassing position. Mr. Asharaff had reportedly signed an electoral pact with Mr. Arumugam Thondaman of the CWC. None of the SLMC rank and file knew what the contents were. One source told The Sunday Times even the Sihala Urumaya was apprehensive about only Mr. Ashraff's and Mr. Thondaman's actions. Their deeds and actions had placed the Muslims in jeopardy vis a vis their majority Sinhala brethren, the source added.

In addition to these problems, at least one MP, M.M. Zuhair, is learnt to have been angered by Mr. Ashraff's move to bring in businessman A.J. Muzzamil, to contest Colombo district – a position originally meant for Mr. Zuhair. 

Though Mr. Muzzamil is his own brother-in-law, Mr.Zuhair is said to be strongly opposed since he is of the view that the SLMC was now being invaded by businessmen who had money.

SLMC General Secretary, Rauf Hakeem, defended his leader's action. He told The Sunday Times "We did not plan to walk out on the PA. It was Mr. Fowzie's statement, which angered us so much. They simply cannot run away with the excuse that it is his personal view.

Some political analysts say Mr.Ashraff's latest resignation drama is a storm in a tea cup. They say he is sure to patch up his differences and remain in the PA.

But for the pious power broker, the question still remains whether all his prayers will be answered during the current pilgrimage.

Even if he succeeds in forcing PA to agree to give four seats from the National List, he still has to win seven more seats. That is not his only prayer. He also wants Fowzie out of the PA.

On the other hand, Mr. Fowzie, also a God fearing Muslim like Mr. Ashraff, is hoping that his prayers are answered. That Mr. Ashraff will not get more than five seats and that he would not give up politics and go into oblivion.

Its not only Musalmaans, or the faithful Muslims, but all others who will watch anxiously to see on whom Allah will shower most of his blessings come October 10. 

Govt. has to take responsibility

"They are mistaken if they think we are reacting emotionally to an outburst by a maveric minister. It's much more than that," he said in an interview with The Sunday Times.

Following are excerpts:

Q:Why did you go and meet the Elections Commissioner?

A: Well I met the Election's Commissioner initially to ask him to extend the time given for displaced voters to register in the districts where they are living as displaced people, to vote for the General Elections.

Q: Extended till when ?

A: He has agreed to extend the period from tomorrow upto another further week. And that will be the final extension. 

Q: Did Minister Fowzie's outburst push you to make this move or had it been planned before?

A: We did not plan to walk out on the PA in this manner. But Mr. Fowzie's statement angered us a lot. It came at a crucial juncture. 

It may have even been a calculated move and those with vested interests may have used Mr. Fowzie. But the government has to take the responsibility and cannot merely dish out the excuse that they were Mr. Fowzie's personal views.

We have been tolerating this kind of unwarranted provocation by Mr. Fowzie for quite some time. But on the eve of an election where it is imperative for the PA to have the SLMC on their bandwagon, for him to make such insinuations and insult us is totally unacceptable. 

Q- What was the SLMC's position before Mr.Fowzie's statement came?

A: We were in the process of having a dialogue with President Kumaratunga and some senior ministers of her cabinet about the electoral arrangement that could be worked out. It was the PA's wish that we be part of its team, although we had pointed that it might be even disadvantageous to us.

Q : In other words all along you have been calling the shots?

A: No but it was for mutual benefit ultimately. We want the national ethnic problem resolved and we believe only a resolute and forthright leader like President Kumaratunga can achieve this. This is why we have so far sacrificed various parochial interests, particularly looking from the community point of view in our endeavour to support her. There were instances in which we had to suffer insults and also had to bear with the intransigence of this government purely because we thought that our patience would ultimately pay off. We pinned our faith on the sincere efforts of the President to resolve the national ethnic problem. I must concede that she did vindicate our faith in her by coming to Parliament with the Constitutional Reform proposals and bravely standing up to an Opposition, which seemed desperate and without any particular program of action.

Q: You have laid down some conditions if you were to come back to the PA once again, what are these?

A: There has not been an official request yet. The announcement has come that the President won't accept the resignation. Various emissaries were sent in the form of Ministers S.B. Dissa-nayake, Mangala Samara-weera. and Minister Alavi Moulana . 

We have a lot of respect for these ministers but are mistaken if they think that we are just reacting emotionally to an outburst by a maverick minister. It's much more than that. 

They don't realise that we are facing a revolt within our party ranks . We have never faced such a situation in the past. 

Q: How do you see the suspension of Mr. Zuhair in this context?

A: That was a different matter altogether. Within any party you have these situations where on the eve of a general election various kinds of revolts and disagreements do come up -that's part of the political culture in this country. I regret that such a situation arose but if they were a little more patient and less rebellious we could have patched things up. 

Q: Don't you feel that Minister Ashraff leaving the country at this moment is a drawback?

A: No . I feel the best thing for him was to get out of the country. This should not be equated with those UNP MPs going out of the country during the constitutional vote. This was totally voluntary and he felt he needed some spiritual solace.

Q : Was it something prearranged ? 

A: No, no, it was a bolt from the blues. At a time like this when he is facing revolt within the party and when we are in intense negotiations with the PA and a man of Mr. Fowzie's calibre thinks that he can do this kind of thing and insult us like that, it's the limit. So he felt that he would understake this pilgrimage, and then let things sort of die down a bit here.

Q: Regarding the polit buro meeting, was he in touch with you at that time? 

A: Yes he has been in constant touch with me and a number of our high command members. Infact last night alone he would have spoken to me about six times, and each time he spoke to me we were on the phone for more than 15 - 20 minutes. We discussed a variety of options and also a variety of strategies, one of which was for him not to come. 

Q: Are you expecting him on Sunday? 

A: That depends on how things work out at this end. We'll wait and see. We have already put in place a program of action and that's going along smoothly. If it is necessary he will come by Sunday. 

Q: Do you think there is a lot of chance of you going back on this decision ? 

A: You see our doors are not shut. It's up to the PA to decide whether they want us or not. The question remains to be resolved. But technically, Mr. Ashraff and others have perhaps not resigned because the resignations have not been accepted. 

But if the the President decides to summon him and have a dialogue with him there is one condition on which we would insist, that in a future cabinet Mr. Ashraff and Mr. Fowzie cannot serve together. 

Editorial/ Opinion Contents