22.5.2008
By Franklin R. Satyapalan
M. L. A. M. Hisbullah and two other
UPFA provincial councilors who decided to remain independent
of the ruling coalition in the newly constituted Eastern
Provincial Council have agreed to abandon their protest
if the government adds education to the ministerial portfolio
offered to Hisbulla in addition to Health and Muslim Affairs.
Besides, they have asked the post for deputy chairman for
one of the other councilors.
Should
the government agree to this arrangement, Hisbullah would
extend support to Chief Minister Pillaiyan, M. S. Suhair,
a councilor who sided with him told The Island.
The
majority of the people in the Eastern Province, he said,
were Tamil speaking and the subject of education should
be assigned to a minister who was conversant with their
problems and needs.
Suhair
said the Hisbullah group had consulted its supporters in
the areas like Valachchnai, Eravur and Kathankudy and the
people had asked them to reconsider their decision as their
protest could be misconstrued as an attempt to undermine
the aspirations of the Tamil people. They had said the rebels
must not be seen to be spoiling efforts being made to solve
the problems the minorities were faced with.
A
large number of elderly supporters of Hisbulla, sources
said, had pleaded with him to return to the UPFA fold and
work for the Eastern Province, which, they told him, had
a lot of unsolved problems.
All
Ceylon Muslim Congress Leader and Minister Rischard Bathiudeen
said the rebels had contacted him and he would take up the
matter with President Mahinda Rajapaksa after yesterday’s
Cabinet meeting.
Courtesy
- The Island
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