Muslims Should Reject SLMC & Its Offshoots Wholesale
Dr. Ameer Ali
The creation of the SLMC as a political party based solely on religion was a historic blunder, which if not rectified soon, will drag the Muslim community into political abyss. The foundational philosophers of SLMC were deluded by a misguided vision about the Indian Muslim League model. The tragic consequences that Muslims of India had to face and are still facing as a result of this ethno-religious model somehow or other missed the attention of the SLMC founders. A critical study of the birth and growth of SLMC is a tempting field for research.
In Sri Lanka, the demographic, linguistic and economic characteristics that had shaped Muslim settlements, and the fact that in the 1980s when the idea of a Muslim party was conceptualised ethno-nationalism was already ripping the country apart, were assumed to be irrelevant as long as Muslims could unite under a religious banner and fight for their so called ‘rights’. Up to now no one from the SLMC has enlightened the public what those unique rights are. The slogan “Allahu Akbar” and nothing about national unity or nation’s welfare decorated SLMC rallies and Muslim voters were hallucinated with Marx’s opiate so that they could forget their mundane problems and elect megalomaniac leaders, who had nothing but self-interest in their heart to promote.
What the ethno-religious politics of SLMC has achieved so far were, firstly, to devalue the ‘politics of pragmatism’ which the pre-SLMC Muslim generation so successfully institutionalised by joining one or the other of the then existing national parties; secondly, to worsen the already deteriorating ethnic tensions in the country and making the Muslim community (like the Tamils under the LTTE) to lose even the little it had gained in the earlier era; thirdly, to reward incompetency, corruption and dishonesty at the expense of talent, truthfulness and dedication; and finally, to damage immeasurably the positive image that the Muslim community had cultivated over a millennium particularly amongst the majority Buddhist Sinhalese. Will the SLMC provide a record of their achievements that benefited the community, let alone the nation? Have the leaders of this party made any contribution on behalf the Muslim community to the national debate on the country’s economy, security and development? All that they have done is to bargain with their coalition partners for ministerial positions and personal wealth. Read More