The Hindu : National : Muslim party quits Rajapaksa regime

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 13, 2007
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National

Muslim party quits Rajapaksa regime

B. Muralidhar Reddy

COLOMBO: Three days before the third and final reading of the 2008 budget is to come up in Parliament for voting, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) withdrew its support to the Mahinda Rajapaksa government and pulled out its four Ministers.

The leader of the SLMC, Rauf Hakeem, and three of his colleagues who quit the government, told reporters on Wednesday that their party would vote against the budget proposals scheduled for last stage of voting on Friday.

At the second reading of the budget last month, the government managed to push it through with a majority of 16 votes in a House of 225 members. Despite the latest jolt from the SLMC, the Rajapaksa government faced no imminent threat unless disgruntled members within the ruling Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) choose to join the opposition ranks.

The decision of the SLMC to leave the government has nothing to do with the budget proposals per se. The SLMC has said that it was compelled to quit following the alleged failure of the government to redress the grievances of Muslims in Eastern Province.

The contention of the SLMC is that in the wake of the military operations against the LTTE in the east by the armed forces during the past one year, several hundred Muslims have been displaced and are not being allowed to return to their original places.

The opposition parties are making a concerted effort to destabilise the government during the current session of Parliament and expect desertions from within the SLFP though there are no such apparent signs yet. The government survives on the support of 23 dissident members of the main opposition, United National Party, and smaller parties in Parliament.

Under the provisions of the Constitution, defeat of a Finance Bill does not automatically lead to fall of the government.

The ruling combine would get an opportunity to present the budget for a second time and the government would fall in case Parliament votes against it.

Separately, the military claimed that at least 43 cadres of the LTTE and three soldiers were killed in continuing clashes between the forces and the Tigers along the Forward Defence Lines (FDLs) in the north in the last 24 hours.

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