Ajmal Masroor & Tower Hamlets Mayoralty

Ajmal Masroor is a Bangladeshi-born British Imam, broadcaster and politician. He is well known for being a television presenter on political discussions and on Muslim channels. In the East End Ajmal Masroor is more famous for being the dark horse that defeated Respect’s Abjal Miah in 2010 and came second to Labour’s Rushanara Ali in the 2010 general elections in Bethnal Green and Bow. He certainly had entertained himself with the idea of standing for general elections again this year but I am not sure why he decided against it.

However, just when we thought he had resigned from standing as an MP and with another general election due in weeks, the politics of Tower Hamlets has provided him with another opportunity to have a stab in holding public office.

Ajmal Masroor is a very vocal human rights activist and comes second to Rizwan Hussein as a celebrity fundraiser. Through his Facebook page he is tickling his supporters with the possibility of him standing as the  Mayor of Tower Hamlets. 

https://www.facebook.com/ajmal.masroor  

Below is a commentary from me on what I think of his comments which had to be carefully worded. He could not and should not claim Lutfur Rahman’s legacy, neither can he refrain from not using the anti-establishment lines to capitalise on the British Bangladeshis sentiment, and rightly so.  

He talked about spiritual injurry which is one of 7 counts of electoral offences the courts found Lutfur Rahman guilty of.

.’’Lutfur has been accused of using religion to unduly influence people to vote for him but is that a spiritual inquiry? What about if I am denied my right to use my spiritual guidance to vote for a person who would help me find spiritual contentment?  Would that not be injurious to my spiritual wellbeing?’’

Here Ajmal Masroor raises a very good question and I admire him for his knowledge. I can assure you many people in the East End and from Lutfur Rahman First’s camp do not come near to the sophistication and intellectual ability this man has. Hold on to your horses, I am not promoting him, just stating a fact.

Regarding corruption Masroor is blatantly honest:

‘’Most people in Tower Hamlets know that most local politicians have been steeped in this grand playing field of corruption, cronyism and nepotism.’’

You will not find any politicians or candidates out there being this bold to admitting our state of affairs. While being honest he almost tries to score a political point in saying that everyone in Tower Hamlets does it:

‘’In this borough tactics such as postal vote fraud, using emotional pressure on voters to vote in certain ways, racism to influence votes, food for votes and vote barons gambling votes for favours and political patronage have been used by many candidates from the local Labour Party, Conservative party, Liberal Democrats and Respect party for ages.’’

He then connects this to a national example, almost generalising the crime and this I disagree with:

‘’Don’t we have this as a common practice when appointing members to the House of Lords?’’ 

This is not a fair comparison as House of Lords appointment procedure is not democratic and the process is fundamentally different than electing executive Mayor. I am sure candidates for the House of Lords need not register false votes and certainly do not have the family culture in in many Bangladeshi families which allows a son to fill up a voting form for his mother, father and uncles. Yes they may try and influence their associates and family connections to win votes but cannot physically vote for them.

Tactics such as postal vote fraud, using emotional pressure on voters to vote in certain ways, racism to influence votes, food for votes and vote barons gambling votes for favours and political patronage - all this need to be dealt with the utmost strict enforcement of law, and people as well as politicians need to be united against such culture to improve democracy. Anybody willing to be the Mayor and is sincere in changing the borough’s politics for good  needs to unequivocally declare this. 

Ajmal Masroor goes on to blaming the so-called ‘knights in shining armour’ who took Lutfur Rahman to court, as silent supporters of such criminality. He’s right and this is absolutely true but I would appreciate Ajmal Masroor taking more of a moral stand by pointing out that out of those 7 guilty counts, several has been proved with enough credible evidence. 

Yes we can argue on aspect of spiritual influence etc, but what about the count deliberately taking a strategy to brand John Biggs as racist and then in court denying, lying and being deliberately ambiguous when the Judge asked both Lutfur Rahman and Alibor Choudhury if they believed John Biggs is racist.



Ajmal Masroor



So what does Ajmal Masroor have to say about the Mayoralty?

“’This position is extremely onerous and requires a very well-grounded and unifying person who could carry the community with him of her. It requires a person who can rise above party politics, ethnic divisions and petty childish squabbles that has dominated the local politics of this borough.’’

I believe he is sincere about what he says here, though Lutfur Rahman used these lines every other moon.

Masroor is rightly disgusted about politicians’ incompetency and exercising of tribal village politics and this is something of strength and credit to him but can also be his weakness. However, he does seem ready and prepared to lose the sasa’s (uncles) and Bhaisaab’s (brothers) who steer the tribal votes in Tower Hamlets.

''Tower Hamlets needs to be handed back to credible and genuine local leadership and hardworking councillor. In my view any local councillor who do not speak good English, do not demonstrate right skill sets and competencies should not be allowed to stand for any local seats’’ – Ajmal Masroor

So is he willing to distance himself from Lutfur Rahman and what does he thinks about his‘crimes’?

‘’If Mayor Lutfur Rahman has done wrong so has the process of removing him been terribly wrong and in life two wrongs can never make things right’’

This is the closest Ajmal comes to saying that Lutfur Rahman has done wrong. So should he or should he not stand? He definitely wants his well-wishers to think deep and hard before answering.

Well, after I have thought hard and deep I would say this to Mr. Ajmal Masroor. If you are in politics to change politics - go for it. But be careful if politics sucks you in and forces you to become a new person who these very people commenting to support you do not know. The people in Tower Hamlets have been taken on enough rough rides and Lutfur Rahman’s ride was a particularly dodgy one as the court concluded. It has no appetite for another ride which had its new driver announced last week at the Water Lily. The community should be willing to have you as their fresh and new driver than the replacement of the previous one by yet another similar one.

Lutfur Rahman the 'Muslim Mayor' and Conclusions

 Disclaimer

I write this blog in personal capacity. It is only my opinion and not that of my employer or any other organisation I work with.

My Interest

It’s a serious time in the politics of the East End. A significant event like this will be noted in history and has changed the political arena in Tower Hamlets forever.

I am interested in this because it is the community I am part of and involves my subject of interest - politics and religion, the overlapping of these is fascinating to study.

To quickly introduce my theoretical obsessions:  John Rawls’s political liberalist assertion of overlapping consensus failing to produce stability. I will explain these theoretical matters in a separate post along with Tariq Ramadan’s concept of a universal Islam and its apparent incompatibility in the context of East London-based Islamic movements.

‘The Muslim Mayor’

This is a problematic term and used by either side of the political spectrums very naively.

Firstly, for the right and centre-right labelling on Lutfur Rahman as a Muslim mayor helps them overlook any other personal, professional and political qualities he may have. A certain audience will visualise him as the ‘Muslim’ Mayor, as though a Muslim cannot or should not be a Mayor and if they do, you must watch out for their crimes.

Secondly, the Muslims themselves become romantic and emotional that a man’s ability to serve the people is irrespective and his religious identity becomes the subject of pride and prejudice so much so that they are blinded to see any of his wrongdoing.

Both of these approaches are unhelpful and unhealthy for a democratic society. The community in Tower Hamlets is deprived of an honest debate and scrutiny of the policies and priorities the so-called Muslim Mayor was devoted to.

Therefore I think it is of immense importance that we don’t jump on the bandwagon and rather read between the debates and search for truth and facts. We should not let our prejudices, community and religious convictions or our passion for or against the national or local establishment overshadow our judgment.  Reading the 200 page judgement gives us a good place to start including the PwC report from earlier this year.

The Judgement

I would like to analyse and highlight the judgement given by Richard Mawrey QC and summarise it for the readers of this blog. Many of my friends and associates from both Lutfur ‘s camp and the Labour’s camp are also keen to know what I think about this extraordinary development.

Those who have patience and are keen to read the whole judgement instead of my blog may find the full judgement in the link below , I warn you again it is a mighty read at 200 pages!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/bsp/hi/pdfs/judgment.pdf

What was the task?

Following the petitioners application, the task of the court was to determine that the candidate Lutfur Rahman has, by himself or his agents (read the definition of ‘agent’ below), are guilty of corruption or illegal electoral practices.

Who is the judge?

Richard Mawrey QC

Let me challenge the naïve perceptions and rumours beginning to surface on the streets Tower Hamlets and in restaurants of British Bangladeshi community that Richard Mawrey QC is of Jewish origin or has Zionist leanings and has been somehow assigned to this task by the ‘establishment’. A bizarre claim against a professional lawyer with 45 years of professional legal experience and this, mostly in cases relating to local government and electoral fraud. Please just Google it and read his biography.  His CV includes leading the election court in Birmingham City Council in 2004 and Slough Borough Council in 2007.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Mawrey

What needed to be proved?

A. the Mayoral election of October 2014 for the purpose of promoting or procuring the election,  that Lutfur Rahman committed any corrupt or illegal practices or illegal payments, employment or hiring

B. The illegal practices prevailed so extensively that they may be reasonably supposed to have affected the result of the election. In other words, that Lutfur Rahman won the election due to these illegal practices and payments

Who are Lutfur Rahman’s ‘Agents’?

Canvassers are agents, as are supporters who are equipped with rosettes or T-shirts and sent off to campaign outside polling stations. And, as will be seen, members of the wider community who commit themselves to the re-election campaign and work alongside Mr Rahman and his close associates and may properly assume the status of agents for electoral purposes.

The punishment

The consequences for a candidate of being found guilty by himself or his agents of corrupt or illegal practices are serious. In addition to having the election declared void, under s 160 that person is incapable of:

Being an elected MP, Mayor or Councillor in the UK and paying for all the expenses involved in the whole petition process.

What is Tower Hamlets First (THF)?

The evidence in this case all points in one direction; THF was the personal fiefdom of Mr Rahman. He directed its operations,  selected his candidates, and those candidates campaigned on the basis that their job, if elected, was to give personal support to him

    THF had no other aim, objective or ideology beyond the continuation of Mr Rahman in the office of Mayor of Tower Hamlets.

     The accusation of the petitioners that THF was a one-man band has been fully proved by the evidence, with much of that evidence itself coming from Mr Rahman and his witnesses themselves.

Personation and voting offences

The questions were first how widespread were the offences of personation and other voting offences were and secondly, could it be shown that they had been committed by Mr Rahman or those considered by electoral law to be his agents.

False registration

‘’False registration is often the first step in vote-rigging. Ghost voters are registered which are, as said above, either fictitious names or persons who exist but who do not reside at the address concerned. The latter category comprises those who have no connection at all with the property at which they are registered and those who have a connection with the property but are not resident there in the sense that the law requires.’’

The judge then gave detailed evidence of it involving Mr Rahman’s agents and concluded: 

The false registrations are sufficiently numerous to demonstrate that false registration was not the random action of over-enthusiastic members of the public. The false registrations must have been organised.

  As the beneficiary of the organisation was THF, both Mr Rahman and his candidates in the wards, it would be wholly unrealistic to hold that the organisation of these registrations was other than in the hands of THF supporters, ‘agents’ as termed in electoral law.

Personation

‘’Anyone who votes in the name of another person who is falsely registered commits personation. Anyone who has falsely registered himself and then votes commits an offence under s 61(1) of the 1983 Act.’’

The judge gave detailed evidence and findings concludes that:

 It follows that the court is satisfied that false registration, false voting contrary to s 61(1) and personation by persons who are in law the agents of Mr Rahman has been proved to the requisite standard.’’

With regard to the unlawful completion and use of voting documents by third parties, the court was satisfied that both corrupt and illegal practices had taken place and had been committed by persons who were, in electoral law, the agents of Mr Rahman.”

To make my personal conclusion let us go back to the Judge’s intial method:

‘’HOW WIDESPREAD were the offences?’’

Were the voting offences and personation significant enough that it gave Lutfur Rahman a majority of 3252 votes!! It cannot be proved it was this high therefore inconclusive and this reflects some limitation of the legal procedures. 

In my next post I will highlight findings of the court with regards to the false statements made against Lutfur Rahman’s  rival candidate John Biggs, who was portrayed as ‘racist’ as an deliberate election strategy to mislead voters.