Editorial

17th September 2000

Epitaph for Ashraff

A violent election campaign with the general warning of a reign of terror in the last week before the polls was shattered further yesterday with the news of the violent death of Minister of Ports and Rehabilitation M. H. M. Ashraff in a helicopter tragedy.

Whether one agreed with Mr. Ashraff or not, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress pioneer and leader - with some branding him as a dictator - was one of the most dynamic political figures of recent decades. An enigma, he probably considered himself as a king maker.

As a relatively young lawyer and State Counsel, Mr. Ashraff apparently had politics in his blood and political ambitions. He originally flirted with many parties including the TULF. But to achieve greater heights he hitched his wagon to the ethnic star.

Mr. Ashraff chartered for himself a course that took him into the Tiger den in the Eastern Province. He earned the wrath of the majority and received a mixed reaction from the community and religion he was born into and wished to represent.

Mr. Ashraff's first major foray into mainstream politics won him votes in the eastern province where he openly used a brand of Islamic fundamentalism and sometimes the Koran to achieve both personal and party gain and glory. Riding high, mighty and powerful after he helped the Kumaratunga administration to cling to a slim majority in Parliament, Mr. Ashraff cashed his IOUs with the PA Government in style. He would criticise all and sundry opposed to him, from within his party and outside, he would give scandalous directives to the Ports Authority over recruitment policy, he would requisition men and vehicles at State expense for his politics, he would strike hard bargains with President Kumaratunga and then praise her lavishly as God's chosen leader - all in the same day.

The President's response indicated her priority for placating Mr. Ashraff. Even in the last interview before his death Mr. Ashraff while announcing a break with the PA, wished the President well. It was the irony of ironies that his sudden announcement to quit the PA was reaching media organisations just as his turbulent political career came to a turbulent end.

An underlying factor of Mr. Ashraff's role in Sri Lankan politics during the past decade especially was his brand of ethnic politics which came in the aftermath of a proliferation of Tamil ethnic parties. The pot of ethnic politics has begun to simmer in Sri Lanka.

This disturbing tendency has dragged this country more and more to think on ethnic lines. It was inevitable as night follows day that the majority Sinhalese were to come up with a political party mainly to arrest the dominance of minority parties in the formation and running of recent Governments. Muslims who were in the mainstream parties like the UNP and SLFP were enticed or sometimes coaxed or cajoled to join the SLMC and the Muslims in the SLFP especially were marginalised as a result.

In the past few weeks or months Mr. Ashraff has been nurturing a National Unity Alliance and trying to get non-Muslims into the Alliance. But he had identified himself too much as the leader of a Muslim party. He probably thought of the NUA because he too realised that he was playing with fire as leader of the SLMC. It was too little too late to change the overwhelming currents he himself had unleashed and seemed unable to contain.

Mr. Ashraff's tragic death yesterday will no doubt be mourned by his many friends and faithful followers. Sadly, the tragic death of Sri Lankan politics - immersed as it is in ethnic politics - is also being mourned by the vast mass of the peoples of this multi-ethnic multi-religious country where the Sri Lankan identity has been displaced and disfigured due to the communal politics practised by numerous political leaders over the years.

The Political Column

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