By Ameer Ali –

Dr. Ameer Ali

Historically, the Muslim community of Sri Lanka has been noted for its late entry to modernity. The dominant influence religious orthodoxy held over Muslim mindset and consequently the community’s narrow material outlook circumscribed by the demands of commerce, family and worship contributed to this lateness most. That lateness was reflected in political affairs too.  After independence when parliamentary democracy and party politics were introduced, Muslim community kept away from actively participating in the hurly-burly of party politics and instead remained contended after placing its trust solely on the UNP. Thus, “Eating biriyani and voting UNP” became an apt description of Muslim interest in parliamentary politics.  Even the emergence of SLFP to counter UNP in the 1950s did not make any significant dent in this attitude.  The parties of the left were simply rejected because, they were condemned as atheistic.

A significant change in the unidimensional political behaviour of this community occurred however in the late 1980s, thanks to the birth of a Muslim political party, Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), under the leadership of Late M.H.M. Ashraff. Later it split into two with the formation of All Ceylon Makkal Congress (ACMC), and now there are signs on the horizon of a third emerging under a neutral name. But the most salient feature of this new development is the deliberate injection of Islam into Muslim politics. This religious influence became so pervasive and successful that among many ordinary Muslim voters SLMC was even viewed as Allah’s party. A mixture of communal parochialism and religious fanaticism during election campaigns assured victory to members contesting from the two Muslim parties.

However, the new change did not bring any substantial benefit to the Muslim community. All it did was to transform the so-called “politics of pragmatism” practiced by individual Mulsim leaders prior to 1980s into an exercise of wholesale business bargain between Muslim parties and the ones forming governments. While the earlier practice delivered some lasting benefits to the community as such and notably in the field of education, the latter was more beneficial to the personal advancement of Muslim party leaders, their families and friends than the community.  The two Muslim parties took their voters support for granted and assumed that so long as Islam and Muslim identity dominate election campaigns their nominees would be assured of victory and business politics could continue.  hat assumption is no more valid.

Over the last three decades or so a new generation of Muslims have grown up which is qualitatively different from the one that fell victim to the political machinations of Muslim party leaders. This new generation of men and women like in all contemporary communities of Sri Lanka is the beneficiary of modern education and inhabiting an interconnected world of ever flowing information with critical ideas. Hence, their ability to think rationally without religious or hereditary prejudices on issues that pertain to their life and environment makes them different from their parents.  Thus, there is today a recognizable size of educated and independently thinking men and women within the Muslim community who are in alignment with the thoughts and aspirations of their colleagues who led that historic aragalaya in 2022 with their demand for “system change”. Like those colleagues these Muslim men and women are also of the belief that without a radical change in the political culture and governance of this country there will be no lasting solution to the prevailing poly-crisis This new development has produced a silent aragalaya and it is stirring the community on the eve of a presidential election.

Of the thirty-eight all male contestants in the field, except three, Ranil Wickremesinghe (RW), Sajith Premadasa (SP) and Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) the rest are there not to win but to prevent the one they most dislike from winning.  Of the three the first two are the products and beneficiaries of the ruling political culture and governance and they are not prepared to change the status quo. The third with his National Peoples Power (NPP) coalition is the product of the 2022 aragalaya and committed to destroy that status quo by eradicating its political culture through social revolution and cleanse the system if governance. In that sense, the forthcoming presidential election presents the voters with one single choice i.e., whether to vote for a complete shift from the decades old political culture and governance that had destroyed the nation’s historic ethnic harmony, economy and culture or for its retention and continuation. It is a choice between electing AKD or one of the other two.

It is in view of this critical situation that RW and SP are engaged in buying the loyalty and support of as many Muslim leaders as possible. But they are doing so on the outdated assumption that Muslim voters would still rally behind those leaders and behave like a flock of sheep. The silent aragalaya threatens to destroy this tradition. It is not only the qualitative change of a new generation of voters but also the shameful parliamentary record of Muslim leaders in recent times that are toppling the applecart. For instance, their cowardice behaviour to keep silent when the former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa issued that sacrilegious order to cremate Covid dead Musim bodies instead of burying them, the entire Musim community was aghast. Had these gentlemen quietly boycotted the parliament when it happened, they would have at least made an impact on world stage. Instead, they not only remained silent but a few of them dared to support an amendment to the constitution empowering the president even more. Today after three years one leader is asking for compensation for the families of victims. What a shame? Do these leaders deserve the support of Muslim voters?   

As a result of these developments there is a wave of support to AKD’s NPP. This is significant. One can only hope that this swing would push AKD to cross the line.  

*Dr. Ameer Ali, Business School, Murdoch University, W. Australia