MASS RESIGNATION OF NINE MINISTERS AND POLITICAL UNDERCURRENTS

The first few days of this month saw Sri Lanka once again hurtling towards another orgy of antiMuslim violence. Buddhist monk Ven. Athureliya Rathana Thera who is also a Member of Parliament was on a ‘fast unto death’ in the vicinity of Dalada Maligawa(temple of the Sacred Tooth Relic) hallowed by Buddhists in Sri Lanka and abroad. His demand was that Cabinet Minister Rishad Bathiudeen, Eastern Province Governor M.L.A.M. Hizbullah and Western Province Governor Azath Salley should resign or be dismissed from office. The Thera alleged that the trio – all of them Muslims – had links to the Jihadist organisation that attacked three churches and three luxury hotels on Easter Sunday, resulting in the deaths of over 250 people. Rathana Thera’s action struck a responsive chord in the minds of many others who too were of the same opinion.

Ven. Athureliya Rathana Thera had entered Parliament first as an elected member of Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU). He switched sides from Mahinda Rajapaksa to Maithripala Sirisena in 2014-15. He was later nominated as a JHU National List MP from the UNP list. In recent times, he has been chartering an independent course while nominally remaining in the JHU. Rathana Thera’s political image had been somewhat on the decline in recent times prior to the death fast. The sudden decision to launch a fast provided much publicity to the Bhikkhu and brought him very much into the limelight again. The allegations against Bathiudeen, Hizbullah and Salley had already been levelled by members of the Mahinda Rajapaksa led opposition. But Ven. Athureliya Rathana Thera stole a march over all others by launching his fast unto death in support of the demands regarding the minister and two governors.

Another Buddhist monk, Ven. Galagodaaththe Gnanasara Thera, who has an infamous track record of minority-baiting and venomous anti-muslim rabblerousing too got into the fray. The Bhikkhu who functions as the General Secretary of Bodu Bala Sena (Buddhist Power Force) issued an ultimatum that the Muslim trio should quit their posts by 12 noonon Monday, June 3, or else there would be a ‘Senakeliya’ (carnival) in all parts of the country. Given the fact that 27 mosques and many Muslim-owned homes, businesses and vehicles had been attacked by mobs in the Puttalam, Kurunegala and Gampaha Districts in mid-may this year, only a few had any illusion over what was being implied by the threat of a “carnival.”

It may be recalled that Ven. Gnanasara Thera was earlier serving a prison sentence imposed by the Court of Appeal (CA) for a contempt offence where the BBS Gen Secretary had been convicted for threatening a magistrate in open court. The Bhikkhu had appealed against the order to the Supreme Court which upheld the CA’S ruling. Despite the verdict of the Appeal and Supreme Courts, President Sirisena issued a presidential pardon to Gnanasara Thera in a controversial move that was vehemently criticised by many. Although Gnanasara Thera had been convicted for contempt of court offences, it was widely-known that the Buddhist monk had a history of anti-muslim activity.

Many fears were expressed at the monk being released in the aftermath of the Easter Sunday carnage. Interestingly enough, it was Azath Salley who met Gnanasara Thera in prison and acted as an emissary of the President in bringing about a release. It was Hizbullah who made a public request that President Sirisena should pardon Ven. Gnanasara Thera. Now, the same Gnanasara Thera was demanding the ouster of the two Muslim governors who helped to get him pardoned and released from prison.

VIYALENDRAN’S SIDESHOW IN EAST

In another related sideshow, Batticaloa District MP Sathasivam Viyalendran launched a hunger strike in the East in support of Rathana Thera’s fast. Viyalendran, a member of the People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE), had contested the 2015 polls on the House symbol of Illankai Thamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK) and won as a Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP. The PLOTE is a constituent of the TNA. Viyalendran defected from PLOTE/ TNA in October last year and joined the shortlived ‘illegitimate regime’ of Maithripala Sirisena and Mahinda Rajapaksa. He has been functioning independent of the TNA as a Mahinda acolyte ever since. The EX-TNA MP was supported by Ven. Ampitiya Sumarathana Thera.of

Batticaloa’s ‘Mangalaramaya’ Vihara Viyalendran’s sideshow was intended to demonstrate to the world that both Sinhala and Tamil MPS were jointly demanding the ouster of the Muslim trio and action against them for alleged involvement in terrorism. The insecurity and sense of fear felt by innocent Muslim people after Ven. Athureliya Rathana Thera’s fast was further aggravated by the forced closure of shops and businesses in Kandy and wildcat strikes paralysing transport in the region. It appeared that if anything untoward happened to the politician-bhikkhu or even if rumours to that effect started spreading, all hell was likely to break loose on a helpless numerical minority again. Protests and transport strikes in other parts of the country aroused fears of an islandwide pogrom as in ‘Black July’ with Muslims instead of Tamils being the targets now. It was a dark, bleak situation for the country in general and the Muslim ethnicity in particular.

Mercifully, there was no eruption of violence as feared. The volatile socio-political climate underwent a rapid change after it was known that the two Muslim governors had tendered their resignations. Both Hizbullah and Azath Salley had submitted their resignations on Monday which were accepted by President Sirisena. Unlike Rishad Bathiudeen who was elected as MP in 2015, both Hizbullah and Azath Salley had contested and lost in the August 2015 parliamentary elections. Hizbullah who first entered Parliament as a Muslim Congress MP in 1989 was appointed as a National List MP by President Sirisena and made a State Minister. In January this year, Hizbullah was appointed by President Sirisena as Eastern Province Governor.

Likewise, Azath Salley too was appointed Western Province Governor by President Sirisena in January 2019. Earlier, Salley had been the Colombo Deputy Mayor and also a Central Provincial Councillor. He contested from Batticaloa in the 2015 parliamentary polls and lost. Salley who failed to get elected in the local authority polls of 2018 was made governor the following year by President Sirisena.

Both Hizbullah and Azath Salley were appointees of President Sirisena. When Rathana Thera announced his demands, President Sirisena had told both Hizbullah and Salley that they were free to take their own decisions and that he would neither remove them from office nor ask them to resign. Both governors seemed determined to stay put in their posts despite the death fast. But when Rathana Thera’s fast commenced and the orchestrated support for it gathered momentum, President Sirisena received an intelligence report that made him change his stance. The report apparently predicted a major communal conflagration. Furthermore, the SLFP also asked him to remove both governors. Thereafter, Sirisena requested Hizbullah and Azath Salley to resign saying the country would burn if they clung to their posts. After some bickering, both Sirisena’s appointees tendered their resignations. Azath Salley claimed he had resigned on his own and that President Sirisena had not pressurised him to do so. Hizbullah in a statement observed that he had resigned to safeguard the security of the Muslim people.

VEN. ATHURELIYA RATHANA THERA

Once Hizbullah’s and Azath Salley’s resignations were accepted by President Sirisena, the news was conveyed to the fasting Rathana Thera. It was Central Province Governor Maithri Gunaratne who personally told the Buddhist monk around 2.30 p.m. on Monday that the governors had resigned. Although there was no news about Rishad at that time, Rathana Thera called off his fourday hunger strike at about 2.45 p.m. He was taken by ambulance and hospitalised. After a thorough check-up, Ven. Athureliya Rathana Thera was pronounced safe and released from hospital soon (he had been consuming liquids while fasting). With the fast being called off, the prevailing tension and anxiety began de-escalating to some extent.

Now the focus shifted from the Muslim governors to Rishad Bathiudeen, the Muslim Cabinet Minister. Will he resign voluntarily or will he be removed from office?

What if Bathiudeen refuses to quit and continues to remain?

Will there be another round of anti-muslim violence on that count? All these troubling questions were lingering in the air. And then came the bombshell announcement! Not only Rishad Bathiudeen, but also eight other Muslims in the government were quitting ministerial office. In an unusual display of principled solidarity, nine ministers in the government – four Cabinet Ministers, four State Ministers and one Deputy Minister from three different political parties – resigned en masse. Once again, a possible pretext to unleash anti-muslim violence was removed and potential havoc averted.

The four Muslim Cabinet Ministers who resigned were Kandy District MP and Minister of City Planning, Water Supply and Higher Education, Rauff Hakeem; Wanni District MP and Minister of Industry and Commerce, Resettlement of Protracted Displaced Persons, Co-operative Development and Vocational Training and Skills Development, Rishad Bathiudeen; Kegalle District MP and Minister of Highways and Road Development and Petroleum Resources Development, Kabir Hashim; Kandy District MP and Minister of Postal Services and Muslim Religious Affairs, Abdul Haleem. The four Muslim State Ministers who resigned were Batticaloa District MP and State Minister of Social;empowerment,

Seyed Ali Zahir Moulana Batticaloa District MP and State Minister of Agriculture, Irrigation and Rural Economic Affairs, Sihabdeen Ameer Ali; Ampara District MP and State Minister of Provincial Councils and Local Government, H.M.M. Harees; Ampara District MP and State Minister of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine, Faizal Cassim. The Muslim Deputy Minister who resigned was Trincomalee District MP and Deputy Minister of Ports and Shipping, Abdullah Mahrooff.

PARTY-WISE BREAKDOWN

The party-wise breakdown of the ministers who tendered their resignations is as follows – Cabinet Minister Rauff Hakeem along with State Ministers H.M.M. Harees and Faizal Cassim were from the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress who contested on the UNP ticket. State Minister Ali Zahir Moulana of the Muslim Congress contested directly on the SLMC ticket. Cabinet Minister Rishad Bathiudeen, State Minister S. Ameer Ali and Deputy Minister Abdulla Maharoff were from the All Ceylon Makkal Congress who contested on the UNP ticket. Cabinet Ministers Kabir Hashim and Abdul Haleem were from the United National Party who contested on the party ticket. It could be seen therefore that among the nine ministers who resigned, four were from the SLMC, three from the ACMC and two from the UNP. All nine were elected MPS.

When pressure was being mounted that Rishad Bathiudeen should resign or be removed from office, the ACMC leader and Wanni District MP was determined not to give in. Bathiudeen took up the position that he was not guilty of having any link to the NJT/IS or having aided and abetted terrorism in any way. His party MPS strongly backed him. It appeared that if Bathiudeen were removed from ministerial office, he and his four other party MPS would quit government ranks and sit with the opposition. Had this happened, Rishad and the ACMC would have lost their positions but their political stock would have risen high among Muslims.

This status quo was transformed due to the efforts of Parliamentarians Harees, Ameer Ali and Mujibur Rahman. This trio acted as emissaries between the Muslim leaders and party stalwarts with a view to evolve a common position on the matter. After immense spadework done over the weekend, the Muslim ministers and MPS met at the residence of veteran Muslim leader A.H.M. Fowzie on June 3 morning to finalise matters and arrived at the decision to resign en masse. However, they would continue to sit as backbenchers in Parliament and support the government. This decision was conveyed to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and several ministers like Mangala Samaraweera and Mano Ganesan who in turn asked the Muslim leaders to reconsider their decision. Consequently, a second meeting was held at the residence of former Colombo Mayor and ex-envoy to Malaysia, A.J.M. Muzammil where the earlier decision was reviewed, re-affirmed and confirmed. Subsequently, the decision to resign was announced at a media conference on June 3 evening.

The mass resignation of nine Muslim Cabinet, State and Deputy Ministers has rocked the nation and shocked many people. Some are astounded and others genuinely confounded. Never before in the history of Muslim politics in this country has such an event unfolded. For the first time since independence,there is no Muslim holding ministerial office in the government of the day. This is a country where Muslims have in the past been accused of enjoying the powers and perks of Cabinet portfolios in a manner disproportionate to their actual strength of population on ground when compared to the other two minority ethnicities. For instance, prior to the resignations, there were four Muslim Cabinet ministers in the government but only two Indian Tamil Cabinet ministers and none from the Sri Lankan Tamils.

ABSENCE OF MUSLIM MINISTERS

The absence of Muslim ministers was keenly felt at the first Cabinet meeting held on June 4 after the mass resignations on June 3. The total withdrawal of Muslim Parliamentarians from the government is not a welcome development. It certainly does not augur well for the future. There may be some illinformed, misguided elements in this country who would be happy at this turn of events. “We only targeted one but now we have got an unexpected bonanza by way of nine quitting the government,” they may very well gloat. But all level-headed people who think correctly (they are still the majority in Sri Lanka but are silent, silenced or drowned out by other raucous voices) are troubled by this and would not wish this state of affairs to be prolonged indefinitely. However, it is of importance to note that none of the nine will be quitting government ranks. They have only resigned their posts and presumably will sit in Parliament as backbenchers and support the government.

Sri Lanka is already plagued by inter-ethnic polarisations and resignation of Muslim ministers is likely to widen this gulf further. A silver lining in the dark cloud seems to be Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s decision of not appointing replacements to the vacated positions. This suggests that there may be a return to the earlier status quo much sooner than expected. Moreover, the prelates of the three Buddhist chapters have expressed their disappointment over the mass resignations and urged the Muslim MPS to resume their ministerial responsibilities again. Besides, the Muslim leaders have always been more pragmatic in their political approach than their Sri Lankan Tamil counterparts. This column is therefore optimistic that the Muslim ministers would be back in their saddles by ‘Esala Perahera’ unless there is an election, eruption of anti-muslim violence or replay of terrorist attacks.

All these raise some important questions: Why did the Muslim representatives in the government headed de jure by President Maithripala Sirisena and helmed de facto by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe adopt the drastic course of resigning their posts en masse? What were the underlying reasons that compelled four Cabinet Ministers, four State Ministers and a Deputy Minister to pull out of the government together? What were the important factors in current Muslim politics which influenced these Muslim MPS from the SLMC, ACMC and UNP to cut across party lines and embark upon this exhibition of solidarity together? This two-part article would attempt to explain the undercurrents in prevalent Muslim politics that caused or led to this remarkable phenomenon.

SAFETY AND SECURITY OF MUSLIMS

The basic or fundamental reason for the mass resignation of Muslim ministers was the safety and security of the people they primarily represent in Parliament – the Muslim community. Whatever people may say now with the wisdom of hindsight, it cannot be denied that orchestrated violence targeting Muslims was very much on the cards as the Buddhist monk’s death fast continued. Also, it is important to note that this anti-muslim violence may not have been spontaneous or committed at random but could have been pre-planned and well-coordinated. ‘Mobile mobs’ may have attacked mosques, homes, businesses and vehicles of Muslims with great impunity.

What many members of Sri Lanka’s majority community do not seem to understand or recognise is the very real fear of communal violence prevalent among minority communities. The Tamil people underwent violent attacks in 1956, 1958, 1977, 1981 and 1983 during comparativelypeaceful years. They suffered innumerable deaths, destruction and displacement during the war years from 1983-2009. After the war against the LTTE ended, it was the turn of the Sri Lankan Muslims to experience sporadic violence directed against their community. Mawanella, Aluthgama, Beruwala, Ginthota, Ampara, Digana, Negombo, Chilaw, Nattandiya, Bingiriya, Kuliyapitiya, Hettipola, Panduwasnuwara, Nikaweratiya, Minuwangoda – the lengthy list seems open-ended.

With an orchestrated campaign underway for the ostensible purpose of compelling a Muslim Cabinet Minister and two governors to resign there was much anxiety that the Muslim people in Kandy and elsewhere were going to be attacked again. Many Muslim friends in Canada kept asking me whether anti-muslim violence would erupt. They were worried about family, relatives, friends and fellow Muslims back home.

Sri Lankan Tamils who experienced such emotions in the not-so-distant past know how troubling this anxiety is and certainly can empathise with it. Therefore, as responsible representatives of their community, the Muslim ministers could not have remained indifferent or passive to what was likely to occur. They could not take chances, hence their resignations en masse. In order to comprehend the prevailing situation more clearly, a brief re-run of past events needs to be related.

Easter Sunday falling on April 21 was a dark terrible day for Sri Lankaas a group of comparatively-young Muslims engaged in suicide bomb attacks. Explosions occurred in three luxury hotels, three churches, a travel lodge and a deluxe residential apartment in Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa. 254 people were killed and over 450 injured. A faction of the National Tawheed Jamaat (NJT) aligned to the international Jihadist organisation now known as the Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility.

27 mosques and many Muslimowned homes, businesses and vehicles attacked by mobs in the Puttalam, Kurunegala and Gampaha Districts in mid-may In another related sideshow, Batti District MP Sathasivam Viyalendran launched a hunger strike in the East in support of Rathana Thera’s fast Although Bathiudeen, Hizbullah and Azath Salley quit their posts on the same day at different times, the reasons for the resignations were different

The BBS Gen. Secy. issued an ultimatum that the Muslim trio should quit their posts or else there would be a ‘Senakeliya’

Interestingly enough, it was Azath Salley who met Gnanasara Thera in prison and acted as an emissary of the President in bringing about a release