Grievance of Muslims must be addressed - Ashraff Congress

AT a time in our history when the word "Traitor" is flying in all directions, it is high time the Muslims wake up and take stock of events that have over taken them in the recent past leaving them in a pathetic state vis a vis all other communities in Sri Lanka.

Leaving aside personal ambitions and political gains we should all unite and try to find solutions so that we can also genuinely feel that we are part of the Sri Lankan community sharing all blessings as well as hardships in the same manner as all other communities do without a sense of being betrayed by our own Ministers and MPs and the government leaders of the day, the Ashraff Congress leader S. Subairdeen said in a news release.

He said: "In the first instance as Muslims we must blame ourselves or not exerting strong pressure on our elected representatives as to what our priorities are, instead of allowing Muslim politicians from all parties to hoodwink us at election time and then bartering away the interests of the community in favour of achieving their personal ambitions and obtaining portfolios.

They shamelessly become saleable commodities in the hands of the major parties vying to form a government much to the detriment and shame of our community, seriously compromising the honour and dignity of the Muslims who have lived for over 1000 years in Sri Lanka in peace and harmony with all other communities contributing their share in all spheres of activity as proud citizens of this country.

Our urgent priorities as we see are:

To settle and rehabilitate in permanent houses the tsunami affected people, To immediately resettle and rehabilitate about 100,000 Muslim Refugees of Jaffna, Mannar and Vanni with full compensation for their losses in the original places or elsewhere, In the Eastern Province provide Security for life and property by ensuring Democratic principles, Plurality and Human Rights and to live without fear as in the rest of Sri Lanka.

Recruit and provide Muslim police personnel to maintain law and order in all Muslim populated areas in the Eastern Province. If the Government for any reason is not capable of doing so, it must seek the assistance of the United Nations for an International Peace Keeping Force to achieve this objective instead of discriminating against only the Muslims who compose the majority in the Eastern Province with 40% of the population by handing them over to a minority who are only 33% in that province and who have a proven history of grievously mistreating the Muslims, Ensure the return of about 93,000 acres of land seized from the N/E Muslims by force which has led to the impoverishment of 30,000 families and, Hold a referendum for the merger of the North and East as stipulated in the Indo-Lanka Accord.

Correcting the above injustices which will directly affect the lives of over 600,000 N/E Muslims should be our priority rather than bargaining for the maximum number of appointed MPs, Ambassadors, Chairmen and lucrative ministerial portfolios.

We are categorically saying that all grievances of the Tamil community with whom the N/E Muslims have lived side by side for centuries in harmony should be redressed while at the time the legitimate grievances of the Muslims also must be granted, without the Government of Sri Lanka and the International community assuming that sacrificing one minority to please another minority will bring peace. It will only lead to another conflict for the Government to deal with in the near future.

Any onesided legislation authored by the Norwegians and devoid of natural justice and fairplay to all citizens of Sri Lanka alike is bound to fail. We appeal to all Sri Lankans to act according to their conscience rather than being misled by vested interests."