Effective representation eludes Sri Lanka's minorities

SRI Lanka's minority Tamils, Muslims and Malaiyaga Tamils, are groping in the dark for meaningful participation in a socio-political system dominated by the majority Sinhala-Buddhist community.

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Over the years, these communities have experimented with various strategies in a bid to be heard and accommodated in the overall political system. But effective representation has continued to elude them, says a report done by researchers from the Minority Rights Group and Oxford Brookes University led Dr. Farah Mihlar.

This is so especially in the case of the North-Eastern Tamils. The Muslims and Malaiyaga Tamils, on the other hand, have had greater success, having been more flexible and creative in their dealings with the system.

But all minorities labour against heavy odds whether their parties are in the government or the opposition, the report entitled "Divided and Weakened: The Collapse of Minority Politics in Sri Lanka" says.

As the North-Eastern Tamils tend to pitch for federalism, when federalism is anathema for the Sinhalese majority, a sense of disappointment is palpable and widespread among them. The Muslims and Malayaga Tamils also have issues with the dominant community, but unlike the Sri Lankan Tamils, they have not been hostage to a single goal and are therefore not in constant confrontation with the majority community. They cooperate with or confront the dominant community depending upon issues.

"The minority politics that has existed in Sri Lanka since independence is disintegrating, on the one hand crushed by structural majoritarian nationalism, and on the other stunted by a lack of vision, identity and leadership within minorities' own political parties," Dr. Mihlar says.

The study quotes a former Tamil militant who gave up arms in 1989 to become an elected Member of Parliament (MP), as saying; "No one gained by it, not a single MP has achieved anything. We have no other solution, we have no option, we have to do this politics."