S.M.A. Niyas, who holds a membership position in the High Command of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), had handed over his resignation to the SLMC Secretary General on 12 August, which the party has accepted.
Niyas, who represented the party in the last Northern Provincial Council in the latter part of the term, outlined a few reasons for his departure in his resignation letter. These included the party’s failure to take disciplinary action against four of its members that defied the party’s leadership to support the 20th Amendment to the Constitution proposed by the present Government – a move that drew much criticism from many of the SLMC’s affiliates.
However, speaking to The Morning yesterday (15), SLMC Leader MP Rauff Hakeem said that the party accepted Niyas’ resignation letter and that Niyas was not an active member in the party.
He added that any person could give a hundred reasons for their resignation, and that the party was not responsible to respond to these allegations.
“It’s good that he resigned. We will let the ones who want to leave do so.”
He also claimed that the party is not currently facing any internal issues.
Niyas in his letter further stated that the SLMC Leader and its top ranks had cheated the coalition formed with the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB); stigmatises the Muslim community in Sri Lanka and abroad, stressing that the Constitutional amendment was opposed by intellectuals, patriots, and well-wishers of all communities of the country; and that the party was in the best position to defeat the proposal by voting against it.
Hence, Niyas claims the SLMC Leader failed to act honestly in accordance with his words on the political stage before the election.
“Being a party representing a significant number of the Muslims in the country, it has failed to keep the promises given to the people, colleagues, and God. Being a Muslim, the leader of the party is not supposed to breach any agreement until the parties concerned decide to make it null and void, or the other/s violate any serious conditions.
“The SLMC, I do not think, could consider its disappointment in not getting a National List parliament membership from SJB as a serious enough issue to support the constitutional amendment, and I am aware of the explanation by the leader of the party regarding how it was missing. I hate the party for this heinous act, and do not like to further remain as a member of such a party. This has been the worst act of the party’s top rank, that is, Members of Parliament, I have ever seen from the time I joined.
“Furthermore, it is nothing other than the party’s self-character assassination. The question is why it happened so, and whether it was to gain any personal benefit. I could guess the party leader made a great mistake at the last High Command meeting itself, held on 18 October 2020, in which the leader failed to arrive at a bold decision on such a serious matter, affecting not only the ethnic minorities, but also the whole country, in my view. He spent only three hours, and as usual, he took the power of making the final decision after the meeting, to which the majority members also, as usual, simply agreed. I also observed the leader was failing to convince the members of the High Command towards a justifiable decision the party could have made.
“I see this as an act of a party that does not have a sense of accountability, patriotism, or social responsibility. Further, it was arbitrary. Whether this happened with the prior approval of the leader of the party or not, the leader has failed to prove he has the leadership quality to lead the Muslim community further in the future and speak on the national interest on behalf of the Muslims he so far represented. The people of the country should not have forgotten how the same leader of the party committed a similar crime during the previous amendment of the Constitution.”
He also claimed in his letter that the party has neither the necessary ability in reshaping the structure of its own community that is in crisis in all parts of the country, nor in contributing towards national unity, prosperity, and justice, in failing to practise principles-based politics.
