Ineffectual Leadership, Corrupt Politics & Persisting Problems In Muslim Sri Lanka

By Ameer Ali –February 24, 2017

Dr. Ameer Ali

There is one irrefutable fact about the Sri Lankan Muslim community and that is, this minority which has been living in this island peacefully for over a millennium since its origins in the 8th century and prospered exceptionally well in comparison to similar Muslim minorities in the rest of Asia, has, during the last two to three decades, got deliberately enmeshed in narrow ethnic politics and irrational religious fanaticism to such an extent that it is now confronting a virtual existential crisis. Unless the community’s problems are properly diagnosed and remedies meticulously prepared and presented for action the future of this minority appears unsettled and troublesome to say the least.

The responsibility for the prevailing crisis falls heavily on the community’s leadership, which is mostly shared by Muslim politicians and the ulema or religious scholars. Historically and prior to independence it was the Muslim commercial class and landed gentry that monopolised community leadership, but since then because of the country’s overall political, economic and educational changes the social dominance of the business class has declined relatively to that of politicians and the ulema. Unfortunately and seriously what is missing here is the leadership of the secularly trained Muslim intellectual class, an aspect about which l will have more to say later in this short piece.

Even within the political leadership the birth of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) in the 1990s marked a turning point. Before that, the Muslims of Sri Lanka never dreamt of forming a separate political party of their own. Aspiring politicians from the community joined the national parties, contested and won parliamentary representation and a few of them even became cabinet ministers. While the leadership of the Tamil minority was treading a divisive and ethnic based political line Muslim leadership on the other hand, with a commercial shrewdness historically and uniquely inherited, chose to work with the majority community so that the advantages to their own community could be maximised. This strategy, contrary to the criticism it receives from the SLMC politicians and their cronies, worked out very well, and owing mainly to the selfless dedication of some of the then Muslim leaders the community made several strides economically, educationally and culturally. Of course there were substantial shortcomings in these achievements some of which were superficial and even carried hidden disadvantages, like closing schools during the month of Ramadhan. However, the main reason for this shortcoming was not the political strategy but the absence of a carefully crafted agenda or program focusing on the long term interest of the community but designed in consultation with Muslim intellectuals and thinkers. Many of the reforms recommended by the pre-SLMC political leaders were ad hoc and resulted from random thought bubbles. It is the absence of a thoughtfully structured program that is still bedevilling the long term progress and national integration of the community. Sadly at that time such an intellectual class was too small to count, but now the situation is different.

The change of strategy by forming the SLMC, an independent political party based on ethnicity and religion, was the most populist but short sighted political move that some sections of the community undertook driven by selfish motives. ‘United we stand and divided we fall’ is an age old mantra that is always nice to listen but too difficult to put into practice. This is true of the philosophy behind SLMC and a supposed unity of the so called umma was the basis on which the original advisers of SLMC justified the party’s formation. The scattered nature of Muslim settlements in Sri Lanka, the conflicting linguistic and economic interests within the community, and even regional cultural differences were not given due consideration and was thought to disappear under an emotionally concocted political unity. In reality however, SLMC has ultimately become a party mainly for the Eastern Province Muslims and because of leadership squabbles and character assassination within the party there is currently a move to form another one. The SLMC launched its political campaign with the religious slogan “Allahu Akbar”, and resolved to fight for and win the rights of the Muslims. Nowhere in its party manifesto the leaders of the party spelt out what those unique rights for which they were going to fight and nowhere in the party’s latest conference speeches and publications was there any reference to how many of those mysterious rights has the party won for the community so far. Instead, corruption, nepotism, regionalism and personal animosities have become the bane of this party, and its narrow ethnic image and reckless religious sloganeering have added fuel to the communal fire in the country. Can the community afford this leadership? One can fool all the people sometime, some people all the time, but not all the people all the time.

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