By Ameer Ali –

Dr. Ameer Ali

“If constitutional reform with consultation and participation by the ethnic and religious minorities becomes a reality, Sri Lanka will be on the road to relegate ethnic conflict to the past, as in Western Europe” ~ (Dr. Jehan Perera, the morning, 5 March 2024).

The national question of Sri Lanka, which simply means the ethnic issue, is the most sensitive and controversial topic in the current political climate. Yet, it has to be confronted and resolved if there is to be a radical or fundamental change in the way the country is being run since independence. The best chance for that to happen would be under a government led by a new generation of men and women who had grasped the sentiments and yearnings of the aragalaya youth and the meaning of their slogan “No 225”. That slogan was a motion of no confidence on the suitability of the current parliament to bring about that epochal change. On reflecting those sentiments and yearnings, the National Peoples Power (NPP) led by Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) seems to be the only political party that is promising a “system change” or paradigm shift through a “social revolution” and bring about a historic U-turn in the country’s direction towards achieving internal peace, external respect and economic prosperity.  Reports of varying reliability reveal that NPP remains the front runner in the race for power at the next General Election and that AKD carries a winnable margin over his possible opponents in a Presidential contest. However, it is somewhat disappointing to note a paucity of public statements or declarations from the party about its methodology of resolving the national question. How does one rationalize this shortcoming?

There are two possible reasons. The first one is straight forward and related to NPP’s electioneering strategy. NPP is not a party that believes in an armed struggle to capture power. If that were the case it would have spelt out the solution in the open and promised to execute it through force. On the contrary, its battle for ballot compels the party to remain non-committal at best or vague at worst to avoid damaging the support it had cultivated already among all ethnic and religious communities. However, there are pockets of hardliners in every community who unrealistically expect a clear statement or commitment from NPP leadership on thus dividing question. To be fair by NPP even President Ranil Wickremesinghe who went to the extent of promising to implement the 13^th Amendment is now keeping his mouth shut after the Mahanayakas collectively expressed their disapproval to his proposal. The other parties too are remaining noncommittal to protect and enhance their respective vote banks. This cautionary silence may change once the date for election is announced and the momentum of party campaigning starts picking up.

The second reason is that the solution has already been announced and is part of NPP’s larger agenda for system change. If one could rationally decipher the substance and methodology of that change, one could understand NPP’s position on the national question. System change implies a paradigmatic shift. For example, capitalism is the paradigm upon which several economic and market models had been constructed and implemented. No amount of reforming the models could mean a paradigm shift. It only means fine tuning the system or smoothening its rough edges. Without demolishing capitalism’s ideological edifice of glorifying self-interest as opposed to humanity capitalism’s working models could never be freed from their drawbacks. The father of this paradigm Adam Smith explained its ideological edifice in the following immortal words: “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, brewer or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest. We address ourselves not to their humanity but to their self-love, and never to talk to them of our own necessities, but of their advantages”. Likewise, the system that governs this country since independence is built upon the ideological edifice of Sinhala Buddhist majoritarianism. That ideology marks the ultimate objective of political Buddhism as championed and theorized by scholar monks like Walpola Rahula. That edifice had set the paradigm on which the constitution of this country, the model of parliamentary democracy, nature of public administration, pattern of economic management, and gradation of cultural components. One of the most deleterious outcomes of this paradigm and its models is the ethnic problem or the national question.

NPP’s commitment for system change should therefore imply the renunciation of the prevailing ideological edifice.  AKD’s social revolution and change of political culture cannot mean anything else but this. Therefore, NPP’s solution to the national question is embedded in its resolve for system change. This does not mean the destruction of Buddhism or deflation of the Sinhalese majority. Neither will ever happen in this country. Instead, Sri Lanka would remain forever a proud Buddhist nation with its Sinhala community forming its backbone. But the new system would resurrect the nation’s pluralist entity and ethos and be ruled by a government with a constitution based on secular democracy. That new constitution should therefore accord either equal recognition to all faiths in the country or privatize all of them. The Singapore model could be a good one to adopt. If NPP’s solution to the national question could follow the constitutional path as indicated by Dr. Jehan Perera in the opening quote that would be the party’s lasting contribution to the future prosperity and communal harmony in this country. In support of this expectation, it is worth pointing out that there are welcoming signs like the Himalayan Declaration signed between the Global Tamil Forum and leading Buddhist monks. Statement 4 of that declaration calls for “Devolving power in a united and undivided country, accepting religious, cultural, and other identities, and working towards establishing trust between ethnic groups and religious groups”. This sets the tone for future constitutional changes and system change as adumbrated in the scattered statements on the national question and system change by the NPP entourage.

Anti-NPP elements from within the Buddhist community would certainly raise the fear that Buddhism and Buddha Sasana would be in danger under NPP’s new system. Similarly, system saboteurs from the Tamil and Muslim communities could also see danger to Tamil nationalism and Islam. Nothing could be further from the truth. As mentioned before Buddhism is a blessing to this nation and it will flourish even without state support. Even on a global scale Buddhism is a growing religion. However, and neutrally speaking it is not the state or the number of priests and number of worship centres that protect a faith. Instead, it is the sincerity of worshippers that keeps a religion lively and promotes its growth. Thus, NPP’s system change is not an enemy of any religion or ethnic community, but would provide a constitutional and legal base for the freedom of all religions and recognition of all ethnic communities. Without putting words into AKD’s mouth or NPP’s voice box, that in short, according to this author, should be NPP’s answer to the national question.  

*Dr. Ameer Ali, Business School, Murdoch University, W. Australia