Shaul Hameed on why he did not vote - Right of reply

I am perturbed over the comments made in the political column of your newspaper of last week under the caption “UNP misses golden opportunity to work with the JVP” by our Political Editor. The impression you have created to the readers by your bias writing (is) that I stood against the amalgamation of the two schools because one of which was built by my father M.H. Mohamed. You have published this news item, I believe, without verifying the facts and by this irresponsible journalism you are only jeopardising this school Al Hijra Vidyalaya, which has been in existence for the last 75 years.

For your information this school was originally sharing one building with Maligakanda Sinhala Vidyalaya, which was an impediment to the development of both schools when (MP for Borella and Minister) M.H. Mohamed got a piece of land acquired and shifted the school to the present location and named it the Al Hijra Vidyalaya. This is the only Muslim mixed school in the Borella electorate.

This school has a population of 250 students and a huge piece of land is available for future development of this school. Most of the students are from the under-privilege(d) families in this area and economically not able to send to schools far away from their residents.

With this in mind , I voted against the votes of the Ministry of Education, W.P and not for the reasons mentioned above which information you seems to have got from sources better known to you.

You also go onto say that I stood up with the JVP not to defeat the Cooray administration is a sinister move to ridicule my action even though it was sincere from my point of view. I feel my action in voting against the Cooray Administration is a brave move even though some of your Blue Eyed politicians will not even attempt to do (sic).

By Shaul Hameed, Mohamed

RESPONSE: It will help if Mr. Shaul Hameed Mohamed went to Al Hijra Vidyalaya and learnt some English to understand what we said. Mr. Mohamed jnr., had excused himself from voting with his party (in support of Chief Minister Reginald Cooray) saying that his father Mr. M.H. Mohamed was involved in building of one of the schools in the Colombo district and that he was against the amalgamation of that school with another. Therefore, he took up the position that he would not vote in favour of approving the votes of the Chief Minister Reginald Cooray who is also the Education Minister of the Western Province.

This is exactly what we said. We also said that Mr. Mohamed jnr., did not support the JVP in defeating the Cooray administration by voting against him, but voted against him on the school amalgamation issue. It is because of the calibre of Provincial Councillors like Shaul Hameed Mohamed that we have long advocated the abolition of Provincial Councils.