SLMC may offer issue-based support

By Nirupama Subramanian

COLOMBO, JUNE 20. Sri Lanka today braced for a period of political uncertainty as a crucial ally of the ruling People's Alliance withdrew support to the Government, reducing it to a minority in Parliament.

The Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) announced its decision to pull out of the Government after its leader, Mr. Rauff Hakeem, was sacked from his Cabinet post late last night by the President, Ms. Chandrika Kumaratunga.

``The decision to withdraw support was taken at a meeting of the party's parliamentary group, which felt that (the President's action) was an insult to the leadership of the party,'' Mr. Hakeem said.

Four of the 11 SLMC MPs, including Mr. Hakeem's rival for the party's leadership, Ms. Ferial Ashraff, quit their ministerial posts in protest at the sacking. Party MPs holding other government office followed suit.

However, Ms. Ashraff and three MPs loyal to her resisted the party's decision to quit the Government. In Parliament this afternoon, they did not cross over to the Opposition benches along with Mr. Hakeem and six MPs who back him in the leadership struggle.

It was with the SLMC's support that Ms. Kumaratunga's PA coalition was able to scrape together a thin majority in the 225- member Parliament to form a government after the 2000 general elections.

Even though the SLMC members have not all crossed over, the PA, with a strength of 109, is four short of the required numbers for a simple majority.

Mr. Hakeem told journalists that as his party had contributed to the PA's vote-bank in the last election, it might offer issue- based support to the Government from the Opposition. He said the party had not joined up with the UNP and would form a separate entity in the Opposition.

The SLMC leader said the party had also not yet decided whether or not to support a proposed no-confidence motion against the Government by the Opposition, United National Party (UNP).

Agreement with UNP?

But there is media speculation that Mr. Hakeem has already entered an agreement with the UNP. The SLMC has made it known that it will vote with the UNP on a motion of no-confidence to be brought against a minister alleged to have been behind communal riots in central Sri Lanka two months ago.

Ms. Kumaratunga's decision to remove Mr. Hakeem from the Cabinet appeared to be based on the assumption that his rival, Ms. Ashraff, would be able to prevent a walk-out by the majority of the SLMC MPs. That gamble seems to have backfired.

Mr. Hakeem declared it was a ``relief'' for him to quit a government that had no mandate to rule. It was a reference to the alleged irregularities committed by senior PA members in the last parliamentary elections, particularly in the district from which Mr. Hakeem was elected. The issue had put a jinx on SLMC-PA relations from the very beginning.

Adding to the Government's woes today was a ruling by the Speaker, Mr. Anura Bandaranaike, in Parliament today, rejecting a Supreme Court order staying him from instituting a parliamentary enquiry into allegations of misconduct against the Chief Justice, contained in an impeachment motion against him by the UNP.

Among the accusations against the Chief Justice, Mr. Sarath Silva, a handpicked appointee of the President, is that he had blocked the course of the law in a divorce case in which he was named as a co-respondent.

Mr. Bandaranaike, ruling that the work of Parliament was outside the jurisdiction of the courts, said he would instruct the Secretary-General of Parliament to initiate the necessary procedures with regard to the impeachment motion.

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