The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and the Lost Quest for Separatism in Sri Lanka

Asian Survey ◽  
2009 ◽  
Vol 49 (6) ◽  
pp. 1021-1051 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neil DeVotta
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
State Building ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Culture Of Impunity ◽  
Separatist Movement

The ethnocentric policies successive Sri Lankan governments pursued against the minority Tamils pushed them to try to secede, but the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam's (LTTE) immanent contradictions——the quest for state-building and independence juxtaposed with fascistic rule and terrorist practices——undermined the separatist movement and irreparably weakened the Tamil community. The Sri Lankan government's extraconstitutional counterterrorism strategies under Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa helped defeat the LTTE, but the attendant militarism, culture of impunity especially among the defense forces, and political machinations bode further ill for the island's democratic and polyethnic future.

Sri Lanka is likely to face early elections

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
National Party ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
National Unity ◽  
Party Discipline ◽  
Content Type

Subject Political instability in Sri Lanka. Significance Parliament resumed early last month after being prorogued by President Maithripala Sirisena. Sri Lanka’s National Unity Government (NUG), formed after the 2015 legislative elections, is a coalition between Sirisena’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s United National Party (UNP). Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) leads the Joint Opposition (JO). According to the constitution, a two-thirds parliamentary majority would be required for Sirisena to bring forward the next legislative elections due in 2020. Impacts The breakdown in party discipline in parliament suggests instability will be a long-term feature of Sri Lankan politics. Judicial campaigns against the Rajapaksa family will intensify, despite its sustained political influence. Political uncertainty will cause the Sri Lankan rupee to fall further against the dollar.

New Sri Lankan president will zero in on 2020 poll

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
National Party ◽  
Strong Ties ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Security Concerns

Significance The front runners are Gotabaya Rajapaksa, from the opposition Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), and Sajith Premadasa, from Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe's United National Party (UNP). The next elections to parliament, where no party or alliance currently has a majority, are due by end-2020. Impacts As president, Rajapaksa would be better able than Premadasa to negotiate the uncertain period between presidential and parliamentary polls. Delhi and Beijing will quickly congratulate the victor, eager to demonstrate a wish for strong ties with the new administration. Recent arrests in Malaysia of suspected sympathisers of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam will raise some security concerns in Sri Lanka.

The unresolved constitutional dilemma: Persisting Imbalance of power exposed by the Constitutional Coup 2018

2021 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 116-141
Author(s):  
Binendri Perera
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Checks And Balances ◽  
Prime Ministers ◽  
Constitutional Reforms ◽  
Governmental Power ◽  
The Way

On 26th October 2018, Sri Lankan President surprised the nation with his abrupt removal of the Prime Minister in office and the appointment of another Prime Minister on ambivalent constitutional grounds. Through his actions, President Sirisena was attempting to bring to the power the former strongman Rajapaksa from his own party to entrench himself as well as their party, while undercutting Wickremasinghe and his party. Constitutional Coup 2018 was executed meticulously to ensure that the President and his old enemy, now his new-found ally could capture governmental power. The result was that Sri Lanka had two Prime Ministers claiming to be appointed to office. The paper discusses the dramatic and complicated actions and reactions that occurred during the Constitutional Coup 2018. This paper analyzes how the Constitutional Coup exposed the persisting imbalance of power as a weakness of the Sri Lankan Constitution of 1978 that undermines constitutionalism and how this weakness persisted despite the 2015 constitutional reforms. Even though the constitutional coup 2018 was resolved affirming the supremacy of the constitution the paper analyzes how the weakness exposed during then paved the way towards the deterioration ofthe system of checks and balances.

The New ‘Other’: Islamic Radicalisation and De-radicalisation in Sri Lanka

2021 ◽  
pp. 097492842110477
Author(s):  
N. Manoharan ◽  
Drorima Chatterjee ◽  
Dhruv Ashok
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Muslim Community ◽  
Small State ◽  
The Core ◽  
Incipient Stage ◽  
Island State ◽  
Key Terms

One of the key terms to understand the nature of violence and conflicts world over is ‘radicalisation’. Sri Lankan case is instructive in understanding various dimensions of Islamic radicalisation and de-radicalisation, especially in South Asia. Though a small state, Sri Lanka has witnessed three radical movements, the latest being Islamic that got manifested in deadly Easter attacks of April 2019. Eco-space for Islamic radicalisation existed in the island for decades, but the rise of ultra-Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism post the end of Eelam War IV acted as a breaking point. The underlying context is perceived insecurity feeling projected by hardline Sinhala-Buddhist elements. In due course, the primary ‘other’ shifted from Tamils to Sri Lankan Muslims. Apart from inter-communal dissonance, international jihadist network also fostered radicalisation process in the island’s Muslim community. Political instability due to co-habitation issues between the then president and the prime minister was a perfect distraction from the core security and development issues. In response to the violent manifestation of radicalisation, de-radicalisation measures by the successive Sri Lankan governments were mostly military in nature. Socio-economic and political components of Islamic de-radicalisation are at the incipient stage, if not totally missing. The article suggests wide-ranging measures to address the issue of radicalisation in the island state.

scholarly journals Prime Minister Narendra Modi visit to Sri Lanka and its impacts on Indo-Sri Lankan relations

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (S2) ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Jeeva ◽  
D. Sivakumar
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Party Leaders ◽  
Good Relationship ◽  
Neighboring Country ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Internal Level

In Globe, no nation is not an isolate it depends upon one another to fulfill their needs as a result of these multilateral relations build-up. Such a strong relationship we need to maintain means we need strong leadership.  Such strong leaders are there before and after independence also. The several party leaders and their alliances are formed and implement the policies for the development of India at the Internal level as well as external level. The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government’s was formed under two prominent leaders known as Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Narendra Modi. After Vajpayee, the NDA Government under the leadership of Narendra Modi realized the importance of foreign policy and maintaining a good relationship. Sri Lanka is also one of the closest neighboring country; Prime Minister Narendra Modi from 2014 to 2019 he officially visited Sri Lanka at three times within these three visits he used to make several new initiatives in many fields.

Sri Lanka's Prolonged Ethnic Conflict: Negotiating a Settlement

2001 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 437-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Ethnic Conflict ◽  
The Political ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Regional Power ◽  
First Category ◽  
Neighboring State ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Separatist Movement ◽  
Coercive Intervention

AbstractNegotiations to resolve Sri Lanka's prolonged and deep-rooted ethnic conflict have a long history. The negotiations fall into two categories: those conducted locally between parties to the dispute, and those negotiated with the presence and under the auspices of a regional power, India in this instance. There have been several sets of negotiations of the first category, none of them successful. The Indian mediation in Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict which began in the early 1980s and lasted eight years, provides a classic study in the perils involved when a regional power seeks to negotiate and impose a settlement in an ethnic conflict in a neighboring state. That coercive intervention, with its ambiguous and eventually contradictory objectives, failed in almost all of its aims. Entering the dispute as a mediator with the avowed objective of protecting the interests of Sri Lanka's Tamil minority, the Indian army eventually fought the principal representatives of Tamil separatism on Sri Lankan soil, a unique example of an external mediator's unintended transformation into a combatant. The failure of this enterprise aggravated the island's ethnic conflict, far from resolving it. It left successive Sri Lankan governments first negotiating with the most violent and intransigent of the Tamil separatist groups, and then continuing a military struggle once the negotiations failed. The Sri Lankan situation provides insights into the difficulties faced by democratically elected governments in dealing with a separatist movement captured by the most violent group within it, a group that has systematically marginalized its rivals and driven the traditional democratic forces among the Tamils to the periphery of the political system.The new Sri Lanka government elected in December 2001, like its immediate predecessor, is intent on negotiations with the Tamils with the assistance of a Norwegian facilitator. There is little reason to be optimistic about the outcome of such efforts given the dismal record of previous episodes of negotiation between the Sri Lankan government and the principal Tamil separatist group.

The Role of Music and Allied Arts in Public Writings on Cultural Diversity: “People of Sri Lanka”

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 93-100
Author(s):  
Gisa Jähnichen
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Cultural Diversity ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Culturally Different ◽  
The World ◽  
Official Languages ◽  
The Way

The Sri Lankan Ministry of National Coexistence, Dialogue, and Official Languages published the work “People of Sri Lanka” in 2017. In this comprehensive publication, 21 invited Sri Lankan scholars introduced 19 different people’s groups to public readers in English, mainly targeted at a growing number of foreign visitors in need of understanding the cultural diversity Sri Lanka has to offer. This paper will observe the presentation of these different groups of people, the role music and allied arts play in this context. Considering the non-scholarly design of the publication, a discussion of the role of music and allied arts has to be supplemented through additional analyses based on sources mentioned by the 21 participating scholars and their fragmented application of available knowledge. In result, this paper might help improve the way facts about groups of people, the way of grouping people, and the way of presenting these groupings are displayed to the world beyond South Asia. This fieldwork and literature guided investigation should also lead to suggestions for ethical principles in teaching and presenting of culturally different music practices within Sri Lanka, thus adding an example for other case studies.

Blood Pressure values of Sri Lankan Tamils in Jaffna District, Sri Lanka

2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 66-71
Author(s):  
Balasubramaniam M ◽  
◽  
Sivapalan K ◽  
Tharsha J ◽  
Sivatharushan V ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Blood Pressure ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Sri Lankan Tamils

scholarly journals Sri Lanka: Physical Reconstruction and Economic Development as Conflict Prevention Factors

2013 ◽  
Vol 19 (69) ◽  
pp. 55-76
Author(s):  
Boženko Đevoić
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Sri Lanka ◽  
External Pressure ◽  
Power Sharing ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Conflict Prevention ◽  
Prevention Measures ◽  
Postconflict Reconstruction ◽  
Post Conflict ◽  
The Government

ABSTRACT This article gives an overview of the 26 year long ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka and examines physical reconstruction and economic development as measures of conflict prevention and postconflict reconstruction. During the years of conflict, the Sri Lankan government performed some conflict prevention measures, but most of them caused counter effects, such as the attempt to provide “demilitarization”, which actually increased militarization on both sides, and “political power sharing” that was never honestly executed. Efforts in post-conflict physical reconstruction and economic development, especially after 2009, demonstrate their positive capacity as well as their conflict sensitivity. Although the Sri Lankan government initially had to be forced by international donors to include conflict sensitivity in its projects, more recently this has changed. The government now practices more conflict sensitivity in its planning and execution of physical reconstruction and economic development projects without external pressure.

Grasping at Straws: Judicial Review of Legislation in Sri Lanka

ICL Journal ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 281-306
Author(s):  
Danushka S Medawatte
Keyword(s):  
Sri Lanka ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Judicial Review ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Executive Power ◽  
Sri Lankan ◽  
Legal Literature ◽  
Justice Process ◽  
Provincial Councils ◽  
The Impact

AbstractIn this paper, I attempt to examine the evolution of judicial review of legislation in Sri Lanka with a view to better understanding how it has impacted the democratic fabric and constitutional matrix of Sri Lanka. The impact that judicial review of legislation has had on rights jurisprudence, enhancement of democracy, prevention of persecution against selected groups are analysed in this paper in relation to the Ceylon Constitutional Order in Council of 1946 (‘Soulbury’ Constitution) and the two autochthonous constitutions of Sri Lanka of 1972 and 1978. The first part of the paper comprises of a descriptive analysis of judicial review of legislation under the three Constitutions. This is expected to perform a gap filling function in respect of the lacuna that exists in Sri Lankan legal literature in relation to the assessment of the trends pertaining to judicial review of legislation in Sri Lanka. In the second part of the paper, I have analysed decided cases of Sri Lanka to explore how the judiciary has responded to legislative and executive power, and has given up or maintained judicial independence. In this respect, I have also attempted to explore whether the judiciary has unduly engaged in restraint thereby impeding its own independence. The third part of the paper evaluates the differences in technique and stance the judiciary has adopted when reviewing draft enactments of the national legislature and when reviewing draft or enacted statutes of Provincial Councils. From a comparative constitutional perspective, this assessment is expected to provide the background that is essential in understanding the island nation’s current constitutional discourse, transitional justice process, and its approach to human rights.

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