Ugly Muslim Politics

By MYM Siddeek –August 15, 2015

Dr. MYM Siddeek

I am one of the keen observers of the Muslim politics from the time the Muslims felt sidelined and realised the need for a separate Muslim political party to raise their concerns in the parliament since mid-1980s. I am also closely listening and watching the election campaigns by the Muslim political parties’ candidates since the nominations were called for the 2015 general election. In the campaign meetings I hear the pathetic stories of the Muslim candidates who contest in various political parties – Muslim parties and major national parties. These Muslim candidates are mainly trying to attract sympathy votes by stereotyping their personal grievances and using other tactics such as creating regional and communal feelings, character assassinations of opponents and promising national list MPs. I can give a few examples to demonstrate how ugly the Muslim politics is. One of the Muslim candidates is repeating in almost all the meetings why he left one Muslim party and joined the other. He was also telling the audience, as the major component of his speech, how he was ill-treated by the party he had just left. Another leader of a Muslim political party who was overwhelmingly received by the people of the village and so excited by the reception suddenly declared and promised a national list MP to the candidate who organised the meeting. I am sure this candidate will cross over to another party if the leader does not deliver the promise. This party leader was also promising to the audience that he would obtain the so-called Kalmunai costal district if his party secured two seats from Digamadulla district and asking the voters to vote for his party. To give such a false promise, he may be certain that his party will not secure two seats from the district and therefore, he will not need to demand for a costal district from the government after the election. It also implies that the services he is going to provide to the people of this region depends on the number of seats his party secures in the election. Isn’t he going to demand for the Kalmunai costal district if his party does not secure two seats in Digamadulla district? The leader of this very small regional party has made the similar promises in many other districts wherever his party contests!.

In-fighting within each political party is also getting worse day by day. A meeting of a Muslim political party was abruptly interrupted because one of the participants criticised the party leader for not nominating the former MP of his electorate in the national list ! Further, the candidates of the same party are critical of each other in the contest of getting the highest votes in each district they contest. In another meeting, one of the Muslim candidates was making a thunderous speech to get a local council for the village he was born as the main task if he was elected as an MP and asking the audience to vote for him. He was also blaming another party leader for his inability to get it done in the past. But he failed to explain how it would solve the burning issues facing the people of the area. He was also pleading the audience to caste one vote for the main candidate in the district list and another vote for him. In most of the election campaign meetings, I could also hear their calculations of securing two or three seats in parliament in respect of each district they contested. In every meeting there were character assassinations of the opposite party candidates. Further, regionalism plays a major role in attracting the local voters. The campaigns target even chasing the Muslim politicians/leaders out of the region/district who come from other regions/districts and campaigning for their candidates. The Muslims are now divided very much by their party affiliations, regional biases and on personal grounds. Offensive, filthy and vulgar languages are limitless in these election campaign meetings. The ugly inter-party and intra party rivalry among the Muslim candidates is becoming worse day by day since the poll date is nearing closer.Read More