Sri Lankan Politics

This paper sets out to examine Sri Lankan Tamil diasporic mobilization in Canada in its various organisational forms, from the late 1970s to the present. Even as there is much talk about the Canadian Tamil diaspora, the largest population of Sri Lankan Tamils outside of Sri Lanka itself, there is, maybe quite surprisingly, very little actually written about organisational dynamics in the community. In attempting to fill this gap in the research, this paper makes several inter-related arguments: first, far from being monolithic or homogenous, Tamil diaspora politics in Canada is constantly in flux. Second, with respect to issues of reconciliation among ethnic groups in Sri Lanka, as well as economic and social development, the diaspora’s role is ambiguous at best. What is clear, however, is that in the post-war period, the “organisational field” has become quite diverse, and the diaspora’s role in reconciliation and economic development is being openly and actively debated and criticized. I begin by providing a brief overview of scholarly debates surrounding the definition of “diaspora” as well as a snapshot of the Canadian Tamil community, before examining the pre and post 2009 organisational dynamics.

Despite India's status as the world's largest democracy and increasing turnouts in many of the countries of South Asia, recent elections raise concerns about the threat to democracy in the form of majoritarianism. Many of the countries of South Asia are extremely diverse and (mainly) informal mechanisms of accommodation of minorities have been deployed. At the same time concerns about the threat to minority rights in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka have been strongly articulated. It is notable that those countries of South Asia, such as Sri Lanka and Pakistan, which have not accommodated their non-dominant groups, have witnessed high levels of conflict. India has been more accommodative, of both linguistic and religious minorities. However, it is precisely this process of accommodation that many in India now worry will be undermined by Hindu majoritarianism.

The United Nations (UN) is mandated to maintain international peace and security. The UN attempts to achieve this mandate through different means including peacekeeping by deploying personnel and experts in conflict situations. The UN has adopted number of policies and mechanism to strengthen its peacekeeping operations. Although there are number of activities focusing on peacekeeping with notable successful operations, the UN still face issues and challenges which have been negatively influencing the efficiency, effectiveness and the success of its peacekeeping operations. This paper has attempted to examine the key activities of UN peacekeeping operations, their impact, and the major issues that negatively influence and challenge the peacekeeping operations. The study has found that the UN peacekeeping operations have worked effectively in managing conflict situations and establishing peace in many parts of the world. However, the shortcomings and issues particularly in terms of political, military and humanitarian aspects of the operations have negatively influenced the peacekeeping operations in achieving their targets successfully. The study urges the importance of policy and institutional reforms together with commitments of parties, institutions, and involving actors in order to strengthen peacekeeping operations and establish sustainable peace in many corners in the world.

I journey through Sri Lanka to look at life, love and sadness in the land of the teardrop. I also examine the way folk live amongst  their tropical environments, and photograph my journey for you to ponder. A political yet querky look at modern Sri Lanka.

Reacting to an increasingly assertive China, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has looked to expand his country’s influence in the Indo-Pacific, becoming the first Japanese Prime Minister to visit the island nation in 24 years. Whatever these developments could mean for the future of Japanese-Sri Lankan relations, this burgeoning bilateral relationship is certain to have ramifications for the future of the Indo-Pacific.

The Sri Lankan state’s power to narrate the war and characterize the enemy is an expression of “triumphalist nationalism” and is a selective remembering of war. Based on photographs taken during several field visits to these sites by both authors between December 2012 and January 2014, we analyze the relationship of war and tourism and how a particular Sinhala nationalist remembering of the war and landscape of memory are being constructed in post-war Sri Lanka. Today, Sri Lanka is a former war zone where the Government’s troops defeated the rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE or Tamil Tigers) and ended 26 years of violent conflict in May 2009.

The end of the war came at a huge cost to civilian life in the northern part of the country; the UN estimates that over 40,000 people were killed,most of whom were Tamils who form the majority in Northern Sri Lanka. Despite the end of military conflict, war continues by other means, and its representation encapsulates a nationalist politics of victory that at once vilifies the defeated LTTE “terrorists” and excludes Northern Tamils from the Sri Lankan polis. The LTTE’s former hideouts, training facilities, weapons, and vehicles are now tourist sites on display for public viewing.

Sri Lankan military forces and government authorities have succeeded to counter measure terrorism by defeating the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). However, their initiatives and efforts to restore peace and harmony among different ethno-religious groups in the postwar context are highly complex. The additional space given to the reemergence of radical religious groups has negatively influenced the process of fostering religious tolerance and harmony, which have been maintained for centuries in the country. Ethno-religious minorities became the major targets of religious hatred and violent attacks. At both the societal and political platforms, majoritarian religious sentiments and discourse have established a dominant presence in opposing the existence and practice of the religious fundamentals of minorities. This study has attempted to investigate the nature and impact of majoritarian religious violence in postwar Sri Lanka, as well as the efforts made by the government authorities to control them in order to foster religious tolerance and harmony in the country. This study argues that religious violence under the shadow of religious nationalism has been promoted by many forces as a mechanism by which to consolidate a majoritarian ethno-religious hegemony in the absence of competing ethnic-groups context in postwar Sri Lanka. In many ways, state apparatuses have failed to control religious violence, maintain religious tolerance and inter-religious harmony, particularly of accommodating minorities in nature. The study concludes that the continuous promotion of majoritarian religious hegemony through anti-minority religious hatred and violence would further promote religious intolerance and radicalism challenging the establishment of religious harmony in the country.

Sri Lanka known to have the oldest democratic system in the whole Asia. Since 1931 Sri Lanka has had an imperfect and fragile, yet electorally and legally mandated, democracy. But There were three dramatic announcements on the evening of Friday 26th October 2018 from the Presidential Secretariat, which occurred in the following order
• The announcement of the withdrawal of the UPFA from the government
• The swearing-in of Mahinda Rajapaksa before President Maithripala Sirisena as the Prime Minister; and
• The announcement that the President has informed Ranil Wickremesinghe in writing that he has been removed from the office of Prime Minister under Article 42(4).
Even if the legality of the procedure and the clarity and meaning of the relevant constitutional provisions can be debated, the fact that the event was planned in complete secrecy, with no consultation of Parliament or giving the serving Prime Minister and Cabinet the courtesy of even a short prior intimation before the course of action was made public, that it was suddenly carried out on a Friday evening, and that it has taken the country by total surprise, point to some extremely questionable motives.
Indeed, the whole set of circumstances suggest not the way a change of government ought to occur in a democracy, but the sharp practices associated with a constitutional coup, which is likely to lead to a constitutional crisis. It is a constitutional coup because the serving Prime Minister has not legally ceased to function in office before a new Prime Minister has been appointed. And it will lead to an unprecedented constitutional crisis because there are now two competing Prime Ministers and their parties jostling for power, authority, and legitimacy at the very heart of the state. Until one of these persons Mahinda Rajapaksa or Ranil Wickremesinghe can demonstrate that he has the confidence of Parliament through the support of a majority of MPs, and force the President to accept the will of Parliament, the crisis will not be resolved.
After the Nineteenth Amendment was enacted in 2015, the Prime Minister can only cease to hold office by death, resignation, by ceasing to be a Member of Parliament, or if the government as a whole has lost the confidence of Parliament by a defeat on the throne speech, the budget, or a vote of no-confidence (Articles 46(2) and 48). Since the Constitution after the Nineteenth Amendment specifies these ways in which the Prime Minister ceases to hold office, and has impliedly removed the previous power of the President to remove the Prime Minister at will, it follows that there are no other ways in which this can happen. In particular, the President can only appoint another Prime Minister where the serving Prime Minister has lost office in any one of these ways.
It is clear that the serving Prime Minister has not ceased to hold office in any one of these ways. Rather, the President has purportedly removed the Prime Minister from office by acting under the provisions of Article 42(4), which states that the President shall appoint as Prime Minister the Member of Parliament, who, in the President’s opinion, is most likely to command the confidence of Parliament. The President seems to have taken these words rather too literally than is constitutionally permissible. When this provision speaks of the President’s opinion, it contemplates not the subjective and personal opinion of the President as to which MP is best suited to be Prime Minister, but an objective and constitutional view formed by reference to who can command the confidence of Parliament. This is usually, although not always, the leader of the largest party represented in Parliament.
Due to these constitutional crises what President Maithripala Sirisena did was he dissolved the parliament on November 9th and decided to held the election by January of 2019. Anyway, this doing was led to more and more constitutional problems within the country. On 12 November, twelve Fundamental Right petitions were submitted to the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka challenging the president's decree sacking parliament and calling a snap election, by the UNP, TNA, JVP, SLMC and others including Prof Ratnajeevan Hoole, a member of the Election Commission. Arguing that Sirisena's actions were unconstitutional, illegal and against the people of Sri Lanka, Hoole demanded the restoration of status quo prevailing prior to 26 October.
Hoole's position strengthens the argument of 11 other petitions. These were taken up for hearing on the same day by a three-member bench of the Supreme Court and three Judge benches issued an interim order till 7 December staying the proclamation issued by President Sirisena to dissolve parliament and granted leave to proceed with the Fundamental Rights petitions that challenged the President's dissolving parliament.


And according to the gazette issued by president on 4th of November parliament was convened on 14th of November and passed a no confidence motion against newly appointed Mahinda Rajapaksa with 122 votes. And since 14th November to 02nd of December Parliament have passed 5 no confidence motions but President Maithripala Sirisena was yet not ready to accept the fact that Mahinda Rajapaksa have no confidence in the parliament.
So, since this constitutional coup in Sri Lanka three people were already dead. And talking about economic Sri Lanka is currently on a huge crisis. And country is on a huge economic disaster too. But when it’s come to the political side biggest political irony is this. The collective failure of Mr. Sirisena and Mr. Wickremesinghe to be faithful to the 2015 mandate has now brought Mr. Rajapaksa back to power on the invitation of one party in a coalition which dislodged him from power. Whatever turn the crisis may take, Sri Lanka’s fragile process of democratic recovery is in peril. Anyhow this was the situation from October 26th to 4th of December.

Serious questions are being raised within Sri Lanka concerning the wisdom of its food and agricultural policies. This chapter reports on the vision and values of National Heritage, a Buddhist agrarian social movement, which is raising key questions for national and international debate, and presents three alternative solutions to current food and agricultural problems in Sri Lanka and the developing world. Within Sri Lanka there is a heritage, both cultural and agricultural, which can be an appropriate resource for humane development, particularly when it is applied to the practical concerns and problems throughout the nation. To dismiss or discard the accumulated wisdom of such a heritage is to do so without understanding the values which have protected people's livelihoods, and thus agriculture, for centuries. Hence, it is hoped that Sri Lankans themselves will recognize the invaluable worth of their own cultural and agricultural heritage (and values) and to seek to preserve all that is essential in it. National Heritage ultimately believes that this is necessary if the people are to contribute to the creation and evaluation of their own unique form of sustainable agriculture in a realistic way.

Abstact This paper is going to examine what the effective method of terrorism prevention. Identification of terrorism and role of the civil society in the counter terrorist measures were the objectives of this research. The research was based on primary data gathered from 150 interviewees using structured questionnaires. Random Sampling Method was used to collect primary data. In addition to using a structured questionnaire, the officers such as Army, Police, teachers, lecturers, farmers were interviewed. Except lecturers, the other interviewees were selected from " kotiyagala village " at " siyabalanduwa " additional secretariat in Monaragala District. Kotiyagala is a village which has been victimized since 1983 by the LTTE. Our research was referenced the " KOTIYAGALA VILLAGE " in the Monaragala district in Sri – Lanka. It is not a land which had to born terrorism or so called " Border Village ". But intimidation of terrorism had been on there. The villagers have been victimized three times since 1995. Even thou terrorist suppression methods that have been succeed in other areas; they could not suitable for KOTIYAGALA. The villages insisted on the necessary of armed weapons to face terrorist, armed training for both male and female. They said that if they could organize as small groups with arms, they can guard their village. In this sense they implied that the necessity of volunteer armed groups for each village. The research explore that even thou terrorism had been defeated it would not be able to prevent without the active participate of civil societies. Terrorism emerges on the base of factors that had been created by the society through its injustice societal activities. According to the study, root causes which will be led to the emergence of terrorism want to be eradicated to prevent terrorism. There is an active participation of civil society, the terrorism prevention would be fruitful.

Regional politics play a decisive role in national politics when region poses ethnic groups in competing manner. Sri Lanka's Eastern province has been a contested region in terms of ethnic and territorial integration as well as the integration of majority and minorities from the independence of the country, during civil war, and in the post-civil war era. This study explores the ethnic groups' competition for political control and autonomy, as well as its impact in Eastern Sri Lanka. This study has employed both qualitative and quantitative data, collected mainly through secondary sources such as literary books, book chapters, journal articles, newspaper cuttings, and government documents, which are analyzed and presented through interpretive and descriptive manners. The study has found that the Eastern province has been a contested choice for the ethnic majority to extend their ethnic domination, and to implement ethno-centric development-cum settlement policies and programs, all of which are ultimately induced to change the ethnic composition of the region and pushed ethnic minorities to mobilize and demand for more decentralized power and autonomy in the region. The thirty-year prolonged civil war made the region not only a war-torn, but also let to undermining regional democratic principles, including minorities' rights for autonomy. The study also reveals that the new emerging postwar political context at the provincial and national levels continues to undermine the minorities' hopes for autonomy in the region. Nevertheless, the region has emerged as 'role-model' for ethnic cohesive politics.

As final preparations for the 23rd Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) on 15th-17th November 2013 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, this FPC Briefing by Gilberto Algar-Faria examines the challenges Sri Lanka faces dealing with the aftermath of its civil war and recent attempts to facilitate regional autonomy through the Northern Provincial Council (NPC). It explores the tensions faced by the international community in balancing the need for reconciliation and calls for action on human rights issues.

As Sri Lanka celebrates 70 years of independence, it recalls how the island nation was once touted as a potential success case among the newly-independent states. However, due to various challenges over the years, Sri Lanka was then seen as a failure on many counts. Now coming out of a three-decade long conflict, another opportunity has been presented to the country to become a success. Against this backdrop, this paper examines some of the challenges facing the country and the measures being taken to address them in the post-conflict context.

Regional politics play a decisive role in national politics when region poses ethnic groups in competing manner. Sri Lanka’s Eastern province has been a contested region in terms of ethnic and territorial integration as well as the integration of majority and minorities from the independence of the country, during civil war, and in the post-civil war era. This study explores the ethnic groups’ competition for political control and autonomy, as well as its impact in Eastern Sri Lanka. This study has employed both qualitative and quantitative data, collected mainly through secondary sources such as literary books, book chapters, journal articles, newspaper cuttings, and government documents, which are analyzed and presented through interpretive and descriptive manners. The study has found that the Eastern province has been a contested choice for the ethnic majority to extend their ethnic domination, and to implement ethno-centric development-cum settlement policies and programs, all o...

Sri Lankan military forces and government authorities have succeeded to counter measure terrorism by defeating the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). However, their initiatives and efforts to restore peace and harmony among different ethno-religious groups in the post-war context are highly complex. The additional space given to the reemergence of radical religious groups has negatively influenced the process of fostering religious tolerance and harmony, which have been maintained for centuries in the country. Ethno-religious minorities became the major targets of religious hatred and violent attacks. At both the societal and political platforms, majoritarian religious sentiments and discourse have established a dominant presence in opposing the existence and practice of the religious fundamentals of minorities. This study has attempted to investigate the nature and impact of majoritarian religious violence in post-war Sri Lanka, as well as the efforts made by the government a...

In an unexpected turn of events, President Maithripala Sirisena sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe, and appointed former President and his political foe Mahinda Rajapaksa as the new premier of Sri Lanka. This paper explores the causes that led to this unlikely alliance and the breakup of the coalition government.

The United Nations (UN) is mandated to maintain international peace and security. The UN attempts to achieve this mandate through different means including peacekeeping by deploying personnel and experts in conflict situations. The UN has adopted number of policies and mechanism to strengthen its peacekeeping operations. Although there are number of activities focusing on peacekeeping with notable successful operations, the UN still face issues and challenges which have been negatively influencing the efficiency, effectiveness and the success of its peacekeeping operations. This paper has attempted to examine the key activities of UN peacekeeping operations, their impact, and the major issues that negatively influence and challenge the peacekeeping operations. The study has found that the UN peacekeeping operations have worked effectively in managing conflict situations and establishing peace in many parts of the world. However, the shortcomings and issues particularly in terms of political, military and humanitarian aspects of the operations have negatively influenced the peacekeeping operations in achieving their targets successfully. The study urges the importance of policy and institutional reforms together with commitments of parties, institutions, and involving actors in order to strengthen peacekeeping operations and establish sustainable peace in many corners in the world.

Historically, the politics of Sri Lankan Muslims has been identified as moderate and characterized by alliance-making with other major ethnic groups. Muslims rarely considered to form a strong political movement or party to increase their political influence, until the peak of the civil war in the 1980s. This occurrence helped the Muslim community to be facilitated socially and economically, but it also made them vulnerable in terms of rights and power accommodation in national politics. However, the establishment of the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress (SLMC) and its distinct form of politics progressively revived the Muslim community and its politics. This study examines the contributions of SLMC and its founder–leader to Muslim politics and community in Sri Lanka. The findings of this study reveal that SLMC under its founder–leader uniquely colored Muslim politics, which in turn strengthened popular support and transformed the Muslim community into “queen-makers” in the national politic...

Nuthana Kumaraya (modern Prince) is a collection of articles which are mainly focused on  (a) the issues of governance and (b) the critiques of the ‘ideologies’ that the current government based. The book also discusses the on going debate of ‘future of SLFP’ and influence of  such debate in democratic governance in Sri Lanka. Charitha mentions that the contents of the book were his responses and interventions to the ongoing political discussion.  He has also stated that the articles were written after new government took office by the  8 Jan 2015.

Vor dem Hintergrund der Präsidentschaftswahlen vom Januar 2015 beschäftigen sich die Autoren mit der Verteilungsgerechtigkeit und damit, wie die überkommene elitäre Politik und die Alltagskultur beim Zugang zum Grundnahrungsmittel Reis verzahnt sind. Sie un- tersuchen die Massenmedien, die Wahlreden und die politische Propaganda und fragen, wieso das Thema Reis während des hitzigen Präsidentschaftswahlkampfes anfänglich po- litisiert wurde und warum es aus dem Blick der Öffentlichkeit verschwand, als der Wahl- kampf sich dem Ende zuneigte. Insbesondere analysieren sie, wie der siegreiche Präsident Maithripala Sirisena auf historische Legenden und ein symbolträchtiges Bild des Reisbau- ern in der Region Rajarata zurückgreift, ausgerechnet heute, wo eine ganz andere Realität herrscht: Die Reismühlen sind in den Händen weniger Oligarchien konzentriert, zu denen auch nahe Familienmitglieder des Präsidenten gehören.

Sri Lankan military forces and government authorities have succeeded to counter measure terrorism by defeating the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). However, their initiatives and efforts to restore peace and harmony among different ethno-religious groups in the post-war context are highly complex. The additional space given to the reemergence of radical religious groups has negatively influenced the process of fostering religious tolerance and harmony, which have been maintained for centuries in the country. Ethno-religious minorities became the major targets of religious hatred and violent attacks. At both the societal and political platforms, majoritarian religious sentiments and discourse have established a dominant presence in opposing the existence and practice of the religious fundamentals of minorities. This study has attempted to investigate the nature and impact of majoritarian religious violence in post-war Sri Lanka, as well as the efforts made by the government a...

The second paper in the CPA Working Papers on Constitutional Reform series is 'Reshaping the Executive: Choosing the Prime Minister in a Parliamentary System', by Michael Mendis and Asanga Welikala.

Within the deliberations of the Constitutional Assembly process on the form of the future parliamentary system, a proposal currently under consideration is for the introduction of a directly elected prime minister. The thinking underlying the proposal appears to be threefold: (a) that it would promote the stability of government in the context of the proposed Multi-Member Proportional (MMP) electoral system which is not expected to yield overly-large governmental majorities; (b) that the people have been accustomed to the direct election of their chief executive under the 1978 Constitution and that it would be undemocratic to take this right away; and (c) that the election of the chief executive on the basis of the entire country as one electorate would have both a unifying and a moderating effect on electoral politics in the context of a communally plural polity. It may seem as if the principle of direct election negates one of the most important strengths of the model: obviating presidential unilateralism through a collegial executive within which the prime minister is only primus inter pares. It may also seem as if one of the main rationales for abolishing presidentialism is being brought back in through the backdoor to instantiate a system of ‘presidential parliamentarism’. This paper scrutinises the main arguments for and against the principle of direct election of the prime minister. If subject to a series of institutional safeguards, there may be defensible grounds for the innovation. However, there are also grave risks, including the exacerbation of the tendency to executive dominance to which the Westminster model is susceptible. Accordingly, the paper concludes with a preference for a less radical institutional innovation than direct election, which would meet the objectives of stability and clarity: namely, the express pre-election nomination of prime ministerial candidates by political parties, and the consolidation of the prime minister’s authority through an immediate post-election investiture vote.