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Sri Lanka Muslim Leaves Government Coalition in Peril
COLOMBO, June 20 (News Agencies) - President Chandrika Kumaratunga lost her majority in parliament Wednesday when her main Muslim coalition partner quit, plunging Sri Lanka into political turmoil.
The crisis was precipitated when Kumaratunga sacked Trade Minister Rauf Hakeem, head of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC), from her cabinet and the party retaliated by withdrawing its crucial support from the shaky government.
"We decided to quit the government," Hakeem told reporters. "We decided to sit in the opposition. We don't know the future of this government which had no moral right to govern from the very beginning."
In parliament, Hakeem announced his party's mass resignation from the government and crossed the House floor to sit in the opposition benches as ruling party legislators watched dumbfounded.
The SLMC said it would remain an "independent entity" in the opposition and had not decided whether to support the main opposition United National Party (UNP).
Hakeem's sacking came less than 12 hours after he announced that the UNP was in contact with him over the establishment of independent commissions to run the police, the public service, and the judiciary and to conduct elections.
Hakeem lamented that he had not followed the final wish of the late leader of his party to sever all ties with Kumaratunga's People's Alliance (PA), which narrowly won most of the support in the October polls.
"Despite the last wishes of my late leader, we joined the PA government and I find I have been punished for not honoring the wishes of my leader," Hakeem said in an emotional speech before crossing the floor.
SLMC founder, M.H.M. Ashraff, died in a helicopter crash on September 16, shortly after issuing a statement that he was "severing all ties" with the PA, which it had backed for over six years, after differences with its leadership.
Political sources said Kumaratunga had sacked Hakeem in a risky gamble to isolate him within the Muslim party, where he has been facing a leadership challenge from Ashraff's widow, Ferial.
But the widow stood behind Hakeem's decision to join opposition ranks and resigned from her own cabinet portfolio as Rehabilitation Minister.
Initially, Ashraff sounded conciliatory toward Kumaratunga, but at an impromptu press conference at a Colombo mosque, she said, "I stand by everything Mr. Rauf Hakeem said."
Kumaratunga's coalition will now have only 105 seats in the 225-member assembly where a working majority requires 113 seats. Earlier, the president's allies had a slender four-seat majority thanks to the SLMC's 11 seats.
The government could now collapse if the opposition unites in a crucial vote.
"The government may not fall today or tomorrow, but it must be difficult to govern with this kind of equation in parliament," an Asian diplomat said. "There is tremendous scope for dangerous political instability."
The government suffered another blow Wednesday when parliamentary speaker Anura Bandaranaike defied the Supreme Court by starting impeachment proceedings against Chief Justice Sarath Silva, a personal appointee of the president.
The government had been keen to head off impeachment proceedings and the Supreme Court banned the speaker from opening an inquiry into Silva, Sri Lanka's highest ranking judge.
But Bandaranaike dismissed the order with contempt and asserted the parliament's supremacy.
"No one can interfere with the work of parliament and I am ordering that the impeachment resolution against the chief justice be placed in the order book to start the impeachment process immediately," Bandaranaike said.
Silva is accused by the opposition of bias and misbehavior, including adultery and attempting to influence a divorce case where he is a co-respondent.
The opposition UNP, together with the Marxist JVP or People's Liberation Front, moved to impeach the chief justice ahead of an effort to oust another government member, Rural Development Minister Mahipala Herath.
The SLMC had said Saturday that it would support opposition efforts to vote "no confidence" against Herath, who is accused of instigating communal violence at a Muslim-majority town which was devastated last month.
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