A Letter to Basheer Segu Dawood: The Blind Shepherd
- - on 02/25/2016
Dear Basheer Segu Dawood,
Following your Media address about the Muslims’ demand for a separate Muslim Province, I consider it my responsibility as a Srilankan Muslim, since you allege that I’m with you for a separate Muslim Province, to clarify a few misunderstandings and call your attention to some major flaws in your statement.
You said “Muslims cannot give up their demand for a separate Muslim Province”(1).
Since when did you Sir, become the mouthpiece of the Srilankan Muslims? I can’t remember a day when we unanimously granted you and your party the exclusive right to represent us, and demand a piece of Srilanka on our behalf. You certainly did not invite me to that meeting if you ever had one nor did you send me a letter requesting my consent. However I’m not surprised with your blatant ignorance, and arrogance since you have been in the habit of flashing them shamelessly in public many times in the past. I’m acquainted with your tasteless and insipid realpolitik. Nonetheless as a Muslim and a responsible Srilankan citizen it would not only be unwise but slightly dangerous to merely dismiss your foolish remarks as utter nonsense. Thus I hereby declare that your demand is not my demand. I’m a Muslim, and a citizen of Srilanka, and I’m certainly not getting in with you in your band wagon. Let me be clear. I DON’T WANT A SEPARATE MUSLIM PROVINCE, and certainly not a province that has simpletons like you ruling over us.
Little wonder that your colleague and the General Secretary of SLMC, Hassan Ali, instead of apologizing for your imprudent and nonsensical statement, joined in and clarified your position, saying Segu Dawood had never talked of a separate State but only about a separate Province with a Muslim majority centered round the Ampara District(2). Who are these uninvited saviors? Where was their love for the Muslim community when they sided with the tyrannical 18th amendment? Hassan Ali justified your party’s position by saying that the SLMC was under severe pressure to vote for the 18th amendment in order to prevent a party split. What does that imply? That your party voted for further tightening the noose around our necks in the best interests of your beloved Muslim community? Surely you can’t be thinking that we are so thick in the head!
Please don’t drag me into your crazy political aspirations.
You said “…a Muslim Province only will give a motherland and self-determination to Muslims and we cannot give up our demand…”
