{"id":110268,"date":"2020-12-31T17:40:57","date_gmt":"2021-01-01T00:40:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=110268"},"modified":"2020-12-31T17:40:57","modified_gmt":"2021-01-01T00:40:57","slug":"even-you-minister-ali-sabry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/12\/31\/even-you-minister-ali-sabry\/","title":{"rendered":"Even you, Minister Ali Sabry?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

A HAPPY PEACEFUL PROSPEROUS HEALTHY NEW YEAR TO \u00a0ALL LANKAWEB READERS INCLUDING THOSE WHO HOLD CONTRARY VIEWS TO MINE!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Media secretary Viraj Abeysinghe of the Ministry of Health has\nissued a press statement warning against spreading false information concocted\nby certain politicians and websites regarding the subject of whether to bury or\nburn the bodies of persons who have succumbed to the COVID-19 infection\n(lankacnews-Sinhala\/December 28, 2020). It notifies that the Ministry is\nturning its attention to some \u2018politically motivated fake news\u2019 stories\nfeaturing powerful politicians connected with the government. The statement\nfurther says that for the time being (daenata) cremation alone is done on the\ninstructions of all the expert reports received by the Ministry so far. Very\nmuch the same news was carried in Hiru TV News (9:55 pm\/December 27, 2020).\nLet\u2019s hope that this is signalling an end to needlessly prolonged\ndilly-dallying on the part of the authorities about an issue where\nevidence-based science, not a particular religion out of the many, ought \nto have the last word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interviewed recently by two You Tube channels (Hari TV\/Lahiru\nMudalige\/December 16 and Konara Vlogs\/Avishka Konara\/December 23) Ali Sabry PC,\nMinister of Justice, stressed that his struggle is to build bridges rather than\nwalls between the communities. For over eight months now he has been advocating\nburial of bodies of Muslims who have died of Covid-19 ignoring the decree of\nthe competent authority, the DHS (Director of Health Services). The DHS is\nacting on the advice of the local experts who know best what is suitable for\nour country in the current context, i.e., cremation. The reputed lawyer was the\nlegal consultant of (current president) Gotabaya Rajapaksa at least for fifteen\nyears from the latter\u2019s defence secretary days; he has successfully defended\nthe latter against false charges of various kinds fabricated by political\nopponents. Sabry\u2019s aim of establishing intercommunal harmony is laudable, and\nhe may be sincere in his efforts in that direction, but how sincere is yet to\nbe demonstrated. This is because it is puzzling that he repeatedly warns that\nyoung Muslims are likely to be pushed towards extremism by what they\u2019d perceive\nas a denial of their right to freedom of religion if the health authorities do\nnot allow the burial of bodies of Muslims claimed by Covid-19. His totally\nsenseless stand on the sensitive issue (that must be left for science, but not\nreligion, to resolve) is likely to give a fillip to extremists and other\nmiscreants opposed to the government to create trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the first interview mentioned above, Ali Sabry made the\npatently false claim that the Aluthgama and Digana incidents drove young\nMuslims to extremism, whereas the truth was the reverse of that. (These\nincidents must be investigated even belatedly to discover the factual situation\nthat then obtained. The disastrous policy of political correctness that led to\nthe submergence of the truth on those occasions then seems to be at work once\nagain.) Sabry referred to how the UK responded to incidents of Islamic\nextremist violence as a model to follow in dealing with the same problem in Sri\nLanka: the UK government reached out to the mainstream Muslim minority and\nacted to win their confidence and support in order to contain Islamic extremism\nin that country. He implies that Sri Lanka must do the same (as if Sri Lanka\nhas not been doing exactly that for centuries) or \u2018we must kill all Muslims and\nput them into the sea!\u2019 (The violent imagery in his speech is an indication of\nthe commotion in his own mind resulting from his subliminal awareness of guilt\nas he feels forced to lie in this situation for political expediency within his\nown community. He probably fears violent retaliation from extremists for what\nthey might interpret as collusion with infidels in attacking Islam.) He\u2019s been\nsounding the warning mentioned above since early April 2020. He believes that\nhe is undergoing a sort of public trial by being blamed by both the Muslim\ncommunity on the one hand who feel aggrieved by the compulsory cremation rule imposed\non all citizens by the health authorities for the safe disposal of bodies of\nCovid-19 victims and the electorally successful nationalist faction on the\nother led by the monks, who insist that the rule should not be relaxed to\nsatisfy the whims of one particular group of people thereby endangering the\nlives of the whole population through the possible release of the still\ninadequately understood novel coronavirus from the interred bodies to the\ncountry\u2019s water table, which, in many places in Sri Lanka, is not very deep,\nand lies close to the surface. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ali Sabry should  know better than most that there has been\nno lack of reaching out to the mainstream Muslim minority either by the\nmajority community or by the successive governments. Muslims as a community are\nmainly engaged in business. Seventy-five per cent of their customer base\ncomprises Sinhalese, making it possib;e for Muslim businesses thrive normally,\nthough there\u2019s been just condemnation, among the citizenry including the\nmajority Sinhalese, of worsening Islamist extremism in recent years. Be that as\nit may, it is not simply because Sabry has served president Gotabaya in the\npast as his implicitly trusted personal legal service provider that he was made\na national list MP by the SLPP and honoured and empowered with such a very\nimportant key portfolio. It is certain that Gotabaya Rajapaksa believes in the\nBuddhist teaching that \u2018a trustworthy person is the best kinsman\u2019, but he is\nthe last to allow personal relationships or personal prejudices to sway\ngovernance decisions improperly that affect the national interest (or at least\nthat is what people still believe about Gotabaya). \u2018One country One law\u2019 was\nthe rallying cry that inspired patriotic Sri Lankans at both the presidential\nand parliamentary elections to vote for the SLPP, which won with the largest\nmargins. As minister of justice Sabry has been entrusted with the task of\nsupervising the making of a new constitution that is designed to achieve that\nepoch making change (namely, One Country, One Law) among other things. Gotabaya\nmade no bones about the fact that he won the presidency almost exclusively on\nthe strength of Sinhalese votes; most Muslims and Tamils chose not to respond\npositively to his call for support at the presidential election. His bluntness\nis a reflection of his characteristic candour, which has not been compromised\nby the hypocrisy of political correctness, his older brother\u2019s unfailing\nweapon, that fails more often than succeeds.  But Gotabaya holds no grudge\nagainst those who rejected him, for in the same breath president elect Gotabaya\nsaid that he was elected as president of all the citizens of the country and\nthat he would serve in that post without discriminating against any citizen.\nThere is no doubt about the fact that he means what he says. By appointing Ali\nSabry to the all important post of Minister of Justice, the president\nincidentally reassured the Muslims that he will not exclude them from his\nvision of prosperity and splendour for the nation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ali Sabry  has not budged an inch from his original\nunqualified opposition to the mandatory burning of bodies of Muslim victims of\nCovid-19 over which he expressed his disappointment in a Facebook post\nmentioned in an Al Jazeera news report\/April 3, 2020, with the authorities\u2019\ndecision which, he alleged, ignored the WHO guidelines that allow both burial\nand cremation. Are we to believe that our experts overlook WHO guidelines\nwithout a rational explanation? Sabry deliberately ignores the various\nreservations that clearly qualify the WHO guidelines, leaving the authorised\nspecialists of any member country to modify those recommendations as\nappropriate for local conditions and ground realities. The basic assumption\nthat he seems to be operating on, regarding the burial problem, is wrong. For\nall intents and purposes, he pretends to wrongly believe that the health\nauthorities insist on making no exception for Muslim dead in this case because\nthat is what the monks want.  Ali Sabry is the last person that rational\npeople would expect to demand that Muslims should be allowed to bury their\nloved ones dead from the novel coronavirus while cremation is the only method\nlegally prescribed by the Director of Health Services (DHS). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not a happy thing to say about arguably the most important\nand powerful minister in the cabinet, being the closest companion of the\npresident, next to the prime minister, who is the president\u2019s own brother. It\nis inconceivable how Ali Sabry is capable of (no doubt unintentionally)\njustifying the berserk behaviour of some virus-infected Muslims (as seen in\ntheir show of insubordination, noncooperation, physical harassment of the\nhealth workers trying to help them including spitting at them (with the\nmalicious intention of spreading the infection); cases were reported of some\nCovid-19 positive tested individuals spitting out of the windows of buses\ncarrying them to quarantine centres in vicious attempts to spread dreaded\ninfection). Such demonstration of unprovoked anger is based on the false\npretext of alleged discrimination against them by the government in the matter\nof mandatory cremation of Corona dead as prescribed by the responsible health\nexperts to prevent the escape of the deadly virus with many unknowns into the\nenvironment. The virus is no respecter of people\u2019s religious sensitivities. If\nthe Director of Health determines that cremation is the only option for Sri\nLanka in the current emergency, citizens are obliged to accept that and act\naccordingly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why doesn\u2019t Ali Sabry make an effort to explain to the agitating\nMuslims and to the misinformed Muslim world in general, who have never been\nenemies of Sri Lanka, that this blown-out-of-proportion controversy over the\nburial or cremation issue has nothing to do with the monks or the government or\nthe health authorities or the army and police officers (the last mentioned\nhaving been co-opted into the Covid containment operation only as ancillary\npersonnel employed for a strictly logistical purpose to serve under the\ndirector of health services, DHS, the government appointed competent authority\nwho gives leadership to the whole enterprise, which involves every single\ncitizen of the country). The cremation imperative is not an arbitrary decision\ntaken by the government to spite the Muslim minority under pressure from the\nmonks as misleadingly suggested by the hostile foreign NGO elements, Islamists,\na handful of misguided Muslims, and the irresponsible SJB-led opposition. The\nDHS is not acting capriciously either; his recommendations are based on a scientific\nrationale collectively defined by a group of experts belonging to a number of\ndifferent relevant fields of study in the best interest of all resident Sri\nLankans and foreign visitors. Ali Sabry seems to be more concerned about\nremaining in the good books of the handful of Islamists and their sympathisers\nthan the feelings of the ninety-five per cent of the population who are against\nthem. Is he in the thrall of the five percent? Or could it be the case that Ali\nSabry needs to be saved from disguised Islamist apologists and opportunistic\nschemers, who are at present busy striking while the iron is hot? But one thing\nis clear: The goal of One Country One Law will be a non-starter so long as Ali\nSabry remains Minister of Justice. That is my opinion for what it is\nworth. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rohana R. Wasala A HAPPY PEACEFUL PROSPEROUS HEALTHY NEW YEAR TO \u00a0ALL LANKAWEB READERS INCLUDING THOSE WHO HOLD CONTRARY VIEWS TO MINE! Media secretary Viraj Abeysinghe of the Ministry of Health has issued a press statement warning against spreading false information concocted by certain politicians and websites regarding the subject of whether to bury […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[91],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rohana-r-wasala"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}