"Sambandan demands agreement with Muslims for amalgamation of North and East Provinces " By Noor Nizam.

Muslims should NOT at any stage consider the political “CROCODILE TEARS” of R. Sambandan and the TNA, Insha Allah. With the political mentoring I have received from the late M.E.H.Mohamed Ali, MP for Mutur (Trincomalee district), being his eldest son-in-law, Eastern Province Muslims cannot and should not consider the "CROCODILE TEARS" of R. Sambandan, the ITAK or the present day TNA. Being an elected MP, mostly under the ITAK or Federal Party from 1952 to 1965. His brother took over reigns from 1977 and was a UNP MP, District Minister and Minister of State for Ports and Shipping in 1990. On the 20th.,. of July 1997, M.E.H. Maharoof was gunned by an armed gang at the peak of the LTTE violence in the village of Irrakkanady, in Kuchcheveli, in Trincomalee. The late M.E.H. Maharoof son Imran Maharoof is the present UNP MP for Mutur, in the 2015 government. Belonging to a distinguished Muslim family in the Trincomalee District and been active in national politics since 1969, and having mixed and interacted with personalities like MP. Sanbandan of the TNA/TULF, it is my belief that the Muslims in the East/Trincomalee district  should not consider the "CROCODILE TEARS" of R. Sambandan, the ITAK or the present day TNA.

Muslims should never go in for an amalgamation of the North and East as one district/Province. The Muslims in the North-East have suffered very much and lost a lot under the administrative power of Tamil Government Servants/government officials and the dominating Tamil political parties since independence. The Muslims in the North and East were treated as second class citizens. With the advent of the LTTE, it became much worst, till May 2009. The Colombo Muslims or Muslims who live outside the North and East did not feel the oppression, because they were administered by the Sinhalese administrators/government officials who were communal too, but considerate.

On 2 and 8 September 1988 President Jayewardene issued proclamations enabling the Northern and Eastern provinces to be one administrative unit administered by one elected Council. The North Eastern Province was born. 

The proclamations were only meant to be a temporary measure until a referendum was held in the Eastern Province on a permanent merger between the two provinces. However, the referendum was never held and successive Sri Lankan presidents have issued proclamations annually extending the life of the "temporary" entity.

The merger was bitterly opposed by Sri Lankan nationalists. The combined North Eastern Province occupied one fourth of Sri Lanka. On 14 July 2006, the JVP filed three separate petitions with the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka requesting a separate Provincial Council for the East. On 16 October 2006 the Supreme Court ruled that the proclamations issued by President Jayewardene were null and void and had no legal effect. The Eastern Province was formally born on 1 January 2007. SINCE THEN, the Muslims in the Eastern Province have some form of FREEDOM and enjoy FUNDAMENTAL and POLITICAL RIGHTS. Muslims of the Eastern Province should OPPOSE a merger of the North and Eastern Provinces at any cost, Insha Allah. Muslims should NOT at any stage consider the political “CROCODILE TEARS” of R. Sambandan and the TNA, Insha Allah. This comment column is not enough to list the administrative and political atrocities the Tamil politicians and the TNA/ITAK had done to the Muslims in the Eastern Province since Independence. The above content is NOT communal or racists but the TRUTH and nothing but the TRUTH, 

 Noor Nizam. Peace and Political Activist, Political Communication Researcher, former SLFP District Organizer – Trincomalee District