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The three non-Cabinet Ministers from the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) have written to SLMC leader Rauf Hakeem that they would extend their fullest support to the Government in its endeavours to find a lasting solution to the ethnic conflict.

In a letter to Hakeem dated October 25, Ameer Ali Shihabdeen, Najeeb Abdul Majeed and Abdul Rishath Badiuddeen said the National Advisory Council for Peace and Reconciliation was a good forum to express the views and concerns of the Muslim community and arrive at a national consensus on the Muslim question too, since any solution cannot be durable without a national consensus.Excerpts from the letter:"

The President has started the all important National Advisory Council for Peace and Reconciliation (NACPR) aimed at bringing about a national consensus by inviting all political parties and religious and civil society groups on finding a just and durable solution to the ethnic problem that has devastated the country for more than two decades.

"In this conference of national importance, the President invited our party in order to place the views and concerns of the Muslims of the North and East and also to help resolve this national question.

"The Party High Command at its meeting held on 26-09-2004 at Darussalam, decided that the Party be represented by the Secretary General Mr. M.T. Hasan Ali at the inauguration of the NACPR. However, four days later, that is, on 1-10-2004, the High Command was summoned again where you imposed your pre-conceived decision not to attend this conference of national importance and to seek further clarification from the President by requesting an appointment, despite queries made by certain members of.

"The High Command at the said meeting as to the rationale behind the reconsideration of the decision already taken to attend this Conference and their warnings against dire consequences that might flow to the Muslims as a result of this unwise decision.

"However, in response to the appointments sought with the President, she, despite her busy schedule within the short time available prior to the said conference was good enough to grant the appointment sought in her eagerness to accommodate the SLMC at the NACPR, which you evaded without any justiciable reason.

"The conduct of yours in this respect is in our considered view tantamount to the betrayal of the interest of the suffering Muslims of the North and the East in particular and that of the country at large in general since this was an excellent opportunity for the SLMC where it could have enhanced the prospects of finding an acceptable solution by bringing forward the Muslim point of view before the national and international communities.

This is a moment where everyone puts the national interest before self-interest.

"It is regrettable to note here that you have, so far, failed to respond to the letter sent to you by the President in response to your letter seeking an appointment with the President, prior to the inauguration of the NACPR, despite the fact that we collectively and individually raised the said issue at SLMC Parliamentary group meetings as well as private ones, with you.

"In the circumstances, we are constrained to conclude that your position in this respect in the guise of that of the Party is aimed at weakening the efforts of the President, to find a durable solution to the burning ethnic question acceptable to all communities.

"It is public knowledge that you have, making use of the position you hold in the Party, been engaged in aiding the implementation of the agenda of another national political party in this country, which is evidenced inter-alia by the fact that you entered into a much disputed electoral agreement entitled "Amended Electoral Agreement" with that Party, certain clauses of which are in direct violation of the Party Constitution and by your failure to take disciplinary action warranted by the Party Constitution against those members of the Party High Command, who had taken membership in the UNP in order to become members of the Parliament through the National List of the latter, despite agitation by a section of the High Command for prompt action.

"We, therefore, feel it incumbent upon us as members of the SLMC to discharge the duties cast upon us by the Constitution of the Party towards the realization of the objectives enumerated therein and those by the battered Muslims of the North and the East, more than 100,000 of whom have to date, been languishing in absurd poverty and destitution in refugee camps following their forcible eviction almost one and a half decades ago with little glimmer of hope of a permanent solution to end their sufferings beside loss of lives and properties and intolerable hardships with seemingly no end, despite the ceasefire agreement still in force, through their clear mandate to us, as elected members of Parliament at the last General Election to make use of every opportunity available to work towards a viable solution that would encompass their just and reasonable aspirations.

"In the light of the facts stated above, we would like to inform you that since we are fully convinced that your conduct, in the name of the Party amounts to a total let down of the Muslims of the North and East in particular and goes against the national interest in general, we would, in the national interest as well as in the interest of the Muslim community, extend our fullest support to the Government in its endeavors to find a lasting solution, which will benefit the Muslims in particular and the country at large in general."

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