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Ferial doing a Hakeem?
Wednesday, 13 July 2005 - 2:45 AM SL Time
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The problem with political blunders is that they get repeated. The history of Sri Lanka`s conflict is replete with the repetition of such blunders which have cost the country and gullible politicians dearly. Successive governments have been convinced beyond an iota of doubt that the LTTE cannot be weaned away from its separatist goal, but they have all been repeating the same experiments that proved disastrous to their predecessors, as evident from the assassination of President Premadasa, who nestled his striped friends close to his bosom and the near assassination of President Kumaratunga. President Jayewardene and President Wijetunge never trusted the Tigers and both of them were safe.
Those who don`t learn from history, it is said, relive it. There is no better exemplification of this truism than the preparations Minister Ferial Ashraff is making to meet the LTTE to have talks with them on the relief and rehabilitation of Eastern Muslims affected by the tsunami disaster. She has said that it is the one and only option available to her community. We thought she was amenable to the JM, which the government flaunts as the panacea after she was reportedly assured that the government representative to the High Level Committee would be a Muslim. That was why she, we were told, stopped short of breaking ranks with the government. So, what`s the real cause of her disgruntlement'
True, the Muslims of the East were the worst hit by the tsunami and they are still living in appalling conditions even after six months and they need assistance to rebuild their lives. But how can they be helped through talks with the LTTE' What is Mrs. Ashraff going to discuss with the outfit' And how confident is she that the Tigers will help ameliorate the suffering of the very Muslims whom they are hell bent on destroying'
Be that as it may, according to reports she is likely to have a powwow with Tamilchelvam in Kilinochchi in the near future. Why is it Tamilchelvam and not a higher ranking leader' Isn`t it a comedown for a cabinet minister to meet a person like him' Previously, it should be recalled, her bete noir, Rauff Hakeem as a cabinet minister had had a meeting with Prabhakaran himself and solicited his help to protect the Muslims. He also signed an MoU with the LTTE leader and was sanguine about the safety of his community. We warned of the wiles of the Tigers in these columns and asked him to be wary of trusting them but Mr. Hakeem`s optimism knew no bounds. He was shaken awake from his dreams, when the LTTE resumed massacring the Muslims in the East within days of signing the MoU. This is the history that Mrs. Ashraff wants to relive.
The Muslim leaders must own up to the fact that they, too, have like their Tamil and Sinhala counterparts who let down their communities through deals with the LTTE for political gain, failed the Muslims well and truly. The tsunami has exposed their political nudity as never before. While the Muslims are drowning in a sea of misery in the East, these leaders are engaged in petty political squabbles in Colombo without joining forces and speaking in one voice so that they will be heard. Those in the Opposition who failed to look after the Muslim interests when they were in power, are today demanding that the Muslim ministers do so or resign en masse in protest. The ministers are trying to cover up their failure with the fig leaf of deals with the Tigers'just as their detractors once did.
If Mrs. Ashraff gets an opportunity to meet the Tigers, it behoves her to take up the cause of nearly 50,000 Muslims who, driven away by the LTTE from the North at short notice in 1990, are now leading miserable lives in welfare centres in the North Western province as refugees in their own country. She must ask the Tigers to return the lands, money, jewellery and other valuables plundered from them.
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