What are the achievements of Muslims in this PC election

(Dr. Rifai Sulaiman)

It is right time now to reflect on the PC election result of Southern and Western provinces elections. What Muslim community have achieved from this election and how many candidates have secured victory and how many failed in this election and to assess the reasons for the failure of some of our Muslim brothers. 

First and foremost we should consider the strength of our vote banks.

I think that as a minority our vote bank is very much limited and we can not expect that Non-Muslim community would vote any Muslim confidante and Muslim candidates mainly depend on Muslim vote bank. When examine the result of this election we could see that Muslim congress and other Muslim political parties could not secure enough seats in this election because Muslim votes are divided in all national political parties and this includes Muslims parties as well. As such our vote banks will be dispersed greatly and it is unlikely that we could elect enough members. 

Unless and until Muslim politicians comprehend the nature of this diversity and come to term with some sort of unity among Muslims parties Muslim community would make political blunders in Sri Lanka and we would make many more political suicides and as a result it is Muslim community that is going to suffer and that is going to pay the price for the blunders of some crafty and greedy politicians at the expenses of community interest: 

We can not blame Muslim community and public and it is greedy and power hungry politicians who Muslim guide public. voting is one of collective obligation of Muslim community

We live as a minority community and our challenges and problems are somewhat different from other community and our community people will have to seek support and help of politicians in their day life and if politicians we elect do not have any sense of social and communal responsibility and care what can we expect from such people.

Today, we have more 18 members of parliament and yet, their service to our community is minimal and sometime they do nothing to our community rather they look after their interest and their family interest. Most of these people do not put communal interest over their personal interest and moreover, some of them do not care what happen to our community. Recent events tell us this bitter truth. How many mosques are vandalised,? How Muslims and Islam are portrayed by some anti Muslim extremists groups in Sri Lanka and yet, this politicians could do nothing and their ineptitude is very much clear today than any time.

The more we are divided the more others will benefit: I think chances of getting more Muslims people are elected in this election is very much slim and it is politically stupidness to contest more Muslims candidates from different political parties. We urgently need to reform Muslim politics in Sri Lanka. We need to make some unity among all Muslim political parties and come to term with some solid and unified political platform in the interest of Muslim community .

In counties like Sri Lanka communal politics would not work and the longer we are divided in communal the more we would suffer and if think it is high time now to reconsider Muslim political parties and incorporate with national political parties and work with them in greater interest of our community and our country. Communal politics have no place in modern world in countries like Sri Lanka: Tamils May have their own communal politics and there is logic that. They do have thief own geographical enclaves to do that. For us except some parts of East we are scattered around the country and it would be wise that we merged with national political parties to work for the development and progress of our country and community.