Founder -Mohideen Bawa, National Democratic Party for Human Rights
Muslims constitute a sizeable minority in Sri Lanka. Yet a paradox defines the Muslim condition: while Muslims have numbers to make their voice(s) heard and articulate their interests, they have not been able to translate this potential clout and influence into improving their lot. Another layer to this paradox is the inability of Sri Lankan Muslims – either by omission or commission – to take advantage of the new Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka transformed by convulsions within and without.
While a significant swathe of the Sri Lankan population has improved its lot and moved in sync with a more confident and outward looking Sri Lanka , Muslims, it could be said, continue to wallow in a state of despondency and torpor. The evolution of the Sri Lankan polity , the economy and power political equations, which have led to the inclusion of hitherto marginalized groups into the political system and process has had a marginal , if any, impact on the Muslim condition in Sri Lanka .
This raises a set of salient questions: What accounts for this condition? Can it be remedied and Sri Lankan Muslims evolve at parity with the rest of Sri Lanka? If so, how?
The trauma of partition , the attendant dislocation and not being in a position of power and influence are partial explanations. While these factors have indeed affected the Muslim psyche, a fuller explanation may lie beyond these. Sri Lankan Muslims have essentially retreated into themselves and in a perverse manner appear to be content with this condition. The reasons for this retreat and the attendant ghettoization - physical and mental - are manifold: fear of discrimination, fearfulness, the feeling of safety in ghettos, and a lack of ambition and direction. While there are some grounds for a persecution complex among Muslims in Sri Lanka - communal riots, etc- most of this complex borders on paranoia.
A fearful Muslim mass, complacent and characterized by lack of ambition has provided the ample conditions for Muslims being merely viewed as a vote bank. Vote bank politics and getting sucked into its vortex has been tremendously detrimental to Muslims in Sri Lanka. It is about time then that Sri Lankan Muslims move beyond the inertia induced by the general Muslim condition and vote bank politics.
The question is how?
Should Sri Lankan Muslims take recourse to fighting for affirmative action to improve their lot? Should they clamour for quotas and reservations? Or should a more vigorous and dynamic approach be adopted?
Affirmative action is fine in principle and so are quotas and reservations but inherent to these is an overt and debilitating reliance on the state which almost amounts to nannying. This can be potentially counterproductive. The implication here is not that Muslim condition does not need state power and access to resources of the state but that excessive dependence on the state may be harmful and deleterious. What then could be the prudent approach and strategy that Muslims must adopt to improve their conditions in Sri Lanka ?
It may be in the interstices of the state and the market that Sri Lankan Muslims must find and build a niche for themselves. Complementing this must be a 'cultural revolution' wherein Muslims get rid of the accretions that have piled upon their psyche. The question then is largely of political economy and culture. How could this happen? In the absence of a dynamic leadership and civil initiatives emanating from within, the solution to the Muslim condition and the attendant empowerment of Muslims in Sri Lanka may lie in education.
The nature of this education has to be a synthesis of the modern and religious and mostly vocational. The experience of the Asian Tigers –South East Asian states- eloquently demonstrates how education and the development of human capital can a transformative impact on societies and cultures. This could or in fact should be replicated in Sri Lanka.
An expanded and educated Muslim middle class will demand its fair share of substantive and real representation in the political system and process. This, among other things, will lead to a vigorous interest articulation and aggregation among Muslims in the country and the issues be-devilling the community (some of these are structural) will get attention and be remedied. In the process, the democratic space in Sri Lanka will expand and it will become a more robust and substantive democracy. Muslims will become aligned with the broader and wider trends in the country and will improve their condition.
It has been far too long that Muslims have become reactive and despondent. This condition cannot and should not be allowed to fester and continue. It is about time that Sri Lankan Muslims gird their loins and become vibrant and vigorous members of a broader political community. The Idea of Sri Lanka is incomplete without Muslims and their participation. Let this idea attain efflorescence and be true to itself. It is high time for this.
