Ashraff goes abroad, uncertainty in PA

By Nirupama Subramanian

COLOMBO, AUG. 23. With days to go for the start of nominations for the October 10 general elections, the ruling People's Alliance (PA) faced uncertainty as the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) leader, Mr. M.H.M. Ashraff, who resigned from the Cabinet yesterday, went abroad unappeased by a conciliatory statement from the coalition.

Mr. Ashraff, Minister for Ports, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction, resigned along with two other Ministers from his party over remarks by a senior member of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), which leads the coalition, that the SLMC would be unable to win any seat without PA backing.

The remark was in response to Mr. Ashraff's demand for more seats. The SLMC had seven seats in the last Parliament and it was with its help that the PA secured a majority of one in the 225- seat House after the 1994 elections.

Hours after the three Ministers sent in their resignations, the PA general secretary, Mr. D.M. Jayaratne, issued a statement disowning the remarks, made by the Transport Minister, Mr. A.H.M. Fowzie. It said the remarks were ``entirely personal.''

``We wish to reiterate that the SLMC has been and continues to be a loyal and effective partner of the PA Government as well as the PA party,'' the statement declared. Ms. Kumaratunga has not accepted the resignations.

But an unrelenting Mr. Ashraff left on a trip to the Mecca this morning. Other senior members of the party could not be contacted. With the nominations process due to start next week, there is uncertainty over the PA's next move.

Underlying the crisis is a long-standing rivalry between the two Muslim Cabinet Ministers. To add to the woes of the SLMC, infighting has also erupted into the open.

Yesterday, as SLMC leaders mulled over the party's relationship with the PA, they also ejected from its ranks three MPs who aligned themselves with the UNP. Of the three, one was elected from Jaffna district and the others are from the Vanni.

The party's main support base is in Amparai, in eastern Sri Lanka. It is Mr Ashraff's home district.

JVP show of strength

Meanwhile, in a show of strength, cadres of the Janatha Vimukthi Perumina (JVP) massed for the funeral of a party worker who succumbed to his injuries sustained in an attack by unidentified persons while he was pasting election posters. The JVP has alleged that the ruling party sympathisers were behind the attack.

The JVP, which led two armed insurgencies against the State in 1971 and in 1987-90, entered the democratic mainstream, by putting up candidates in the 1994 elections, and has since carved a significant voter base for itself.

Earlier in the day, at a well-attended meeting, the party released its manifesto. Calling it the ``Five Year Plan,'' the party promised to wipe out unemployment in two years by creating 26 lakh new jobs. It also pledged to end the ethnic war by creating a ``new Sri Lanka-oriented political culture'' in which Sinhalese, Muslims and Tamils would live peacefully together, but offered no specific solution to end the conflict.

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Section  : International
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