Making ethnic equality real in practice

The government has been continuously demonstrating an ambivalence to the implementation of the 13th Amendment to the constitution under which the provincial council system has been established. In its election manifesto, the NPP said it did not agree that provincial councils were the answer to the ethnic conflict.

- BY JEHAN PERERA

However, it also recognised that the Tamil and Muslim communities believed the provincial council system was in their interests. Therefore, the NPP promised to continue with it until they replaced it with something better. Government leaders have been articulating the same view more recently as well. They have also been issuing ambivalent statements on the timing of provincial council elections. The current position of the government appears to be that they will conduct the elections after the redemarcation of electorates takes place.

In the past successive governments used this redemarcation as an excuse to delay elections as there was no consensus on redemarcation among the political parties. The NPP government's preferred position is equal treatment for all citizens without discrimination, a stance that has been welcomed by ethnic and religious minorities who are relieved not to be subjected to targeting or adverse actions by the government. However, this emphasis on individual equal rights and nondiscrimination, while important and reassuring in the short term, will be insufficient to address the deeper political aspirations that animate Sri Lanka’s plural society. Sri Lanka cannot become Singapore which is run from the centre for the simple reason that it is not a city. It is a land with regions, languages, memories and identities that go far into the past.