Towards a future free from fears of Islamism – II

By Rohana R. Wasala

Part I appeared yesterday

During an interview conducted in Sinhala on a You Tube channel on October 27, 2021, Shiraz Yunus, who describes himself as Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa’s National Coordinator for Muslim Affairs, laments that by now there is clearly a split in the government between a faction that supports the President and another that stands by the Prime Minister. According to Yunus, the latter has been reduced to a nominal PM and rendered powerless. This, Shiraz Yunus says, is in spite of the fact that the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) came to power due to the influence of Mahinda Rajapaksa. Yunus’s claim is not exactly true: I hear that the ordinary people whisper among themselves that the politically experienced Mahinda has ruined Gotabaya by restraining his actions, the latter being a neophyte in statecraft; Mahinda’s family bandyism and his softness towards certain notorious elements among his loyalists had already dented his heroic image, which helped the 2015 plot against him. The resounding victory of the SLPP in 2020 was not exclusively due to Mahinda regaining his old popularity. Probably, a more important contributory factor was Gotabaya’s image as an uncorrupt person and his reputation as an able civil administrator.

Yunus avers that the Rajapaksa government has lost all its credibility. If an election was held today, 98% of the Muslims would not vote for the SLPP; their (i.e., Muslims’) only hope is for this government to fall; Yunus asserts that the same hope is shared by all Sri Lankans. Only the remaining 2% of the Muslims will want the SLPP to gain power again! And who are those Muslims? “Businessmen and wheeler-dealers”, as Yunus claims, including presumably the likes of Rishad and Hakeem, who are communalist minority politicians. (In the past, Rishad enjoyed the indulgence of the government, whichever of the two major parties was in power.) Yunus complains that although he wanted to contest the last election from the SLPP, he didn’t get the ticket. Now he won’t even vote for the SLPP if there’s an election for it is sure to lose! My hunch is that though Muslims did not make any extraordinary contribution to Gotabaya’s or SLPP’s victory.

The PM’s National Coordinator for Muslim Affairs is no doubt performing his duty to the satisfaction of his employer. Surprisingly for a Mahinda loyalist, he argues that Rishad and Hakeem emerged and flourished during Rajapaksa times, which, however, is not an untruth. In his opinion, the majority Sinhalese were opposed to the 20th Amendment (that repealed 19A and restored the executive powers of the President that it had clipped). When enough MPs (required to form the two thirds majority) were not available to pass the 20A bill, some potentate arranged to cut a deal with the two to get their support. Yunus addresses himself directly to the duo (MPs Rishad and Hakeem) through the CP/Phone/TV screen, and takes them to task for sacrificing Muslim interests for personal political gain! He shouts “lajjai, lajjai” “shame, shame” at them. Rishad and Hakeem must have guffawed in private if they watched him performing his dramatic feigning. However, towards the end of the You Tube channel QA session, Yunus betrays his hypocrisy by inadvertently revealing that he, in addition to being a disillusioned politician, is a disgruntled businessman as well, with interests at least in fertilizer importation and hydro-electricity production. He asked for a permit, he tells the interviewer, for importing what he calls liquid organic fertilizer, but his application was not granted by the agriculture department (which, he implies, does not know what sort of organic fertiliser is good for the country).

Yunus makes the patently false claim that the two and a half million Muslim community live in fear today, implying that all Sri Lankan Muslims are being condemned, and discriminated against, as violent Islamists, which allegation a figment of his imagination. Which community does he hold responsible for this alleged anti-Muslim bigotry? The majority Sinhalese, of course. This is not the place to produce evidence to disprove his false charge (Yunus knows the truth to be otherwise).

Even before the April 21 attack took place, some young Sinhalese Buddhist activists and monks made credible claims that hauls of swords and knives were being concealed in mosques. Nothing was done to check the veracity of these alleged “wild fabrications”. When hoards of newly imported swords were discovered in mosques during police searches following the 2019 Easter Sunday attacks, the Sinhalese Buddhist activists claims were found not to be fabrications, though the yahapalana government didn’t seem to take it seriously. The reality is that this close Mahinda Rajapaksa associate has been repeating the same sort of nonsense in his FB and Twitter accounts and in other mainstream and social media channels.

It is also clear that Shiraz Yunus is better received among global Muslims than the PM himself who consults him on Muslim issues. Yunus says that he has acted as Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Muslim affairs coordinator since March 23, 2018 (that is, well before MR became PM). He stresses that he has no connection with the Muslim Cultural Department, which is paid separately. His job was earlier done by an MP. In his capacity as national coordinator he looks after all Muslim affairs. Yunus complains that those that he calls new ‘viruses’ that recently gathered round the PM have failed to communicate the true message to the Muslim public. There are contextual hints to say that Yunus’s alleged viruses are officials from the Muslim Affairs Department and the Muslim businessmen that allegedly surround him. But, doesn’t he himself belong to the same category?

He makes passing references to the problem of Muslim objections to the cremation of their Covid-19 dead and the Muslims’ perception of the cattle slaughter ban as discriminatory towards them as a community. Why didn’t Yunus, as PM’s paid overall Muslim coodinator (advisor/consultant in practice), prevent the PM from so egregiously mishandling both issues? At that time, cremation of covid dead was ordered by the Director General of Health Services, who had been appointed as the competent authority to decide on the way such bodies were to be disposed of. The DGHS made it mandatory to cremate bodies of Covid dead on perfect scientific advice in view of the water table situation of the country that made burial Covid virus infected bodies dangerous to public health. However, the government could have asked the experts to devise a safe way to bury the bodies of those Covid dead whose families insisted on burying them on religious grounds, such as impervious concrete walled coffins. Ironically, even the fiery Ven. Gnanasara Thera wanted Muslim sentiments respected in this regard, and burial permitted. But that was running counter to what scientific opinion demanded. The decision belonged to the authorities. The DGHS implemented what the health experts recommended. The government took it for granted that people of all religious persuasions would prioritise science over religion, and accept his decision. That agreed with president Gotabaya’s approach to the issue. But the biased media interpreted this as Sri Lanka forcing Muslims to cremate their Covid dead (in violation of their religious beliefs). However, some conservative Muslims and the few opportunistic Muslim leaders didn’t relent.

This handful of communalist Muslim politicians have a niche in both major parties. While this is the truth, many SLPP speakers have rubbished the Janatha Vimukti Peramuna for having included, in the past, business magnate Ibrahim (father of two suicide bomber sons who died during the April 21 Easter bombing attacks) in their national list! But the JVP may not have known that they too had been infiltrated by the same traitors.

Let’s hope that the emerging Jana Bala Vegaya and other patriotic alliances beware of the danger. Majority party politicians need not worry about losing the support of the few Muslim political crooks who are at present ruling the roost within the Muslim polity. They are being exposed, and their days are numbered. The future belongs to young Muslim politicians like national list MP from (Wimal Weerawansa’s National Freedom Front or NFF) Mohamed Muzammil (41), whose secular credentials are beyond question. By the time of the next general elections, there will be enough new youthful Muslim leaders of his ilk to elbow out the blighters.