Sri Lanka - Security
ICG Report: Sri Lanka: Sinhala Nationalism and the Elusive Southern Consensus
Source : ICG 07.11.2007
Colombo/Brussels, 7 November 2007: Lasting peace will not be found in Sri Lanka until Sinhala nationalism and the grievances that give it power are understood and addressed.
Sri Lanka: Sinhala Nationalism and the Elusive Southern Consensus,* the latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines the nationalism of the country’s largest ethnic community and its relationship to the almost 25-year conflict. Recent history shows the Sinhalese are not unalterably opposed to a fair deal for the minority Tamils but competition between their major parties, the United National Party (UNP) and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), together with the violence and intransigence of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), have led President Rajapaksa to adopt a hardline nationalist approach. Until the sources of Sinhalese nationalism are taken more seriously, it will continue to challenge attempts to produce a political settlement.
Although President Rajapaksa states his commitment to a political solution, his decision to rely on hardline Sinhala nationalist parties committed to a strictly unitary state structure instead of considering substantial devolution of powers to the regions has left him with little option other than to try to defeat the LTTE militarily. The All-Party Representative Committee (APRC) set up in 2006 is developing constitutional proposals intended to be endorsed by all parties but the limited progress it has made may unravel due to Rajapaksa’s insistence on the unitary state and the UNP decision to abandon the process.
“Moving away from the unitary state is the only viable basis for resolving the conflict politically. Nothing less has the chance of strengthening the non-LTTE Tamil parties and opening up a new, broader political agenda for constitutional reform endorsed by Muslim, Tamil and Sinhala parties”, says Alan Keenan, Crisis Group’s Senior Analyst in Colombo.
A new approach is needed that addresses legitimate Sinhalese fears, so as to tackle supremacist nationalism and allow for the necessary southern consensus on devolution. Sri Lanka’s international backers will need to persuade the president to compromise by dropping reference to the unitary state. Without strong international efforts to convince both the government and the UNP to find common ground, there is little chance the APRC can produce a political package attractive to both Tamil moderates and Sinhalese.
“To be sustainable, the next attempt at peace needs to be part of a larger project of state reform and good governance from which all communities benefit, not merely a deal in which Sinhalese trade territory for an end of war and terror”, says Asia Program Director Robert Templer. “Domestic and international actors should begin to fashion long-term strategies that take into account the power of Sinhala nationalist ideology, while aiming to minimise the sources of its appeal and its ability to set the political agenda”.
Contacts: Andrew Stroehlein (Brussels) +32 (0) 2 541 1635
Kimberly Abbott (Washington) +1 202 785 1601
The International Crisis Group (Crisis Group) is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation covering some 60 crisis-affected countries and territories across four continents, working through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent and resolve deadly conflict.
