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by Tennekoon Kulasekara

Three thousand members of the UNP in the Ruwanwella electorate who had rejected the leadership of Ranil Wickremesinghe joined the SLFP recently. These former UNP members obtained their membership of the SLFP from the former PA parliamentarian and present candidate Ranjith Siyambalapitiya. Among those who joined the SLFP were three nephews of former UNP parliamentarian U. L. M. Farook who had been refused nomination for the parliamentary election by the UNP leadership.

M. S. M. Rizvi of Anguruwella said: "We have been supporters of the UNP from our childhood. My uncle U. L. M. Farook is the UNP organizer of the Ruwanwella electorate. He was a Deputy Minister in the UNP regime. He practised politics as a decent person. He served the Sinhala, Tamil or Muslim people alike and worked for communal harmony. Rukman Senanayake was parachuted to Ruwanwella. People of Ruwanwella went everyday for one month to Siri Kotha to meet the leader, Ranil Wickremesinghe but we could not meet him. Mr. Farook was removed from the candidates list. We do not want to be members of this new Hitler's party. We do not want to make a leader of a person who does not heed public opinion. Therefore, we have decided to defeat the UNP at the forthcoming elections.

Mohamed Habeeb, Anguruwella said, "We are not racists. But we cannot allow the Muslim community to perish. Ranil had discriminated against the Muslims. He has discarded the Ruwanwella UNP organizer who is a Muslim and brought in a Radalya (Aristocrat) from outside to Ruwanwella."

R. M. Niyaz of Anguruwella said, "We did peaceful politics under the leadership of U. L. M. Farook who did not enrich himself by politics. But Ranil Wickremesinghe who wants to form a government with the Tiger terrorists has forgotten that the LTTE had slaughtered the Muslims and chased them out of Jaffna.

S. M. Nawaz of Anguruwella said, "We need politics for our well-being. Today the UNP is dominated by racketeers and rogues but we remained in the party as we wanted to cooperate with U. L. M. Farook. Now he also has been sidelined. We therefore decided to support President Kumaratunga who is a great leader.

M. R. M. Naufer, a nephew of former UNP Deputy Minister U. L. M. Farook said, the UNP will be routed at the forthcoming elections. The United Front had rendered a valuable service to the minorities of our country. We will see that thousands of UNP Muslim votes in the Ruwanwella area are given to the PA. We will go canvassing house to house and make sure of the PA victory. The UNP leader suffers from an infantile disease of being unable to do anything today. For him, it is always tomorrow which will never come.

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