With his goatee which still looks struggling to grow perhaps for want of thicker stubble, Hizbullah in fact looked like a pubescent kid still not quite used to the sound of his changing voice. Particularly when he was seen at a seminar last week, saying that "Hakeem should be led along the correct path by us if he is being errant."

At this point, it seemed Hizbullah's global revolution suddenly shuddered and died. Hizbullah may have felt that he has been transported to Iraq, and was being set upon by a bunch of cantankerous Ayatollahs. Many bearded men with hirsute growth that would make Hizbullah's own seven o' clock shadow look rather teddy-bearish, set upon him, and he was besieged, like an Arafat (in tenth carbon copy) being besieged in Ramallah.

Says a lot about who is in power these days in the Muslim community. It's a man called Hakeem, who the Muslims in the East of Sri Lanka have a certain love hate relationship with - of which 85 per cent is love, and only 15 per cent is hate.

Those who saw Hizbullah trash Hakeem and then saw the ensuing muddle in which Hizbullah was besieged and had to cancel his seminar, of course were witness to something so rare that they actually saw a sea-change almost in Sri Lankan politics, than just a fight between two factions of the SLMC. They saw Muslims in Sri Lanka actually fighting with each other, which is seen in Sri Lanka or any part of the civilized world, is an impossibility.

But, they say that is the whole point. That super glue that binds Muslims together the way that gives goose bumps of envy to other communities, since late has undergone a change in its basic chemical composition. Now, jihadists are said to be lurking in the East, baying for any moderate blood, which might even include Hakeem's blood, if Hakeem turns too genteel.

But Hakeem was brought up in a much cooler cauldron - - and he is the kind of avuncular figure whose wife actually owns an ice cream parlour in Colombo. With this family background, he is all rainbow stripes vanilla and candy, so how can he be asked to lead this Muslim revolt in Sri Lanka against the forces of repression in the East, and the in-gathering forces of majoritarian marginalisation that is said to be arraigned against the Muslims?

Anura Bandaranaike who is generally known for weightier things like defending his alma mater Royal College, once referred to Hizbullah in parliament as Nadjibullah, and was irate when the Speaker wanted a correction. "Hizbullah or Nadjibullah or any bloody bullah, my position is the same", swore Anura, in one of his more inspired and more remembered moments of parliamentary glory. Hakeem may be able to paraphrase that - - "Hizbullah or any bloody bullah, I will be the Boss, Inshaalla." But he is a Colombo sider, a Hulftsdorp sort of chap, who generally fights only for fun, or for a lawyer's fee. How he can carry the can for the Muslims, and not cause another convulsion in Sri Lankan politics is something that even he wouldn't have considered in his worst nightmares. People like him are born with the ice cream, um, silver spoon in their mouth, but yet, they have trouble being thrust upon them every year, with almost calendar regularity.

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