Communal violence and political instability in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka’s Special Task Force soldiers walk past a damaged houses after a clash between two communities in Digana central district of Kandy. Sri Lanka declared a nationwide state of emergency for 10 days to stop the spread of communal violence after clashes erupted between majority Buddhists and members of the minority Muslim community. (REUTERS PHOTO)

Communal violence is not new in Sri Lanka and has raised its ugly head periodically since independence in 1948. 

The worst was Black July that led to a 30-year civil war, where Sri Lanka sank to its lowest web, both politically and economically and was designated as an unruly  and failed state, where the two main ethnic groups were killing each other to divide this small island of 65,000 square kilometres. 

It was highly illogical for the militant Tamils identified themselves as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), whose leader was bloodthirsty maniac Prabakaran, claiming five-sixth of the coastline and nearly 20 percent of the land area in the north, where the Jaffna Tamils live and also an area in the central highlands occupied by the Indian Tamils. The Sinhalese, who constitute over 70 percent of the population and Muslims, Burgers, etc. were to occupy the rest of the island.

The Indo-Lanka Accord signed between President J.R. Jayewardene and Premier Rajiv Gandhi in 1987, memorandum of understanding for the ceasefire with the establishment of a monitoring mission led by Norway and the various peace talks in Thailand, Norway, Rose Garden – Thailand, Berlin – Germany and Hakone – Japan, were held between September 2002 and February 2003. 

All these negotiations and intervention of third parties finally resulted in the proposal by the LTTE to establish the Interim Self-Governing Authority (ISGA) under the Vaddukoddai Resolution of 1976 “to establish and independent and sovereign secular state for the Tamil people”.

I had commented on the Clause 18 of the ISGA about the marine and offshore resources, where oil and gas as well as mineral sand deposits will come under this “secular state”.

The Muslim community at that time was protected by the Sri Lanka Armed Forces and Police and it should be realized the objective of the militants to drive away the Muslims from the north and east was curbed.

All the attempts by the government with the Armed Forces were unable to completely wipe out the LTTE until President Mahinda Rajapakse, who came into power in 2015 and gave priority to destroy the LTTE militarily. If such a decision was taken in 1983, Sri Lanka would not have suffered a 30-year civil war and the country would have prospered economically and socially. 

Rajapakse should take the full credit for destroying the LTTE in 2009 with the capture of bloodthirsty Prabakaran and his leaders and eliminating them creating a peaceful Sri Lanka, where every citizen was free to travel the length and breadth of the country.

It is questionable whether the opposition at that time gave full support to eliminate the LTTE during the five years. This clearly points to the fact that the politicians are unfortunately divided on party lines and do not want to shed their differences and ideologies and unite for the sake of the people.

Demography of Sri Lanka
The population of Sri Lanka at the 2012 census was 21.2 million, comprising of Sinhalese – 74.9 percent, Sri Lanka Tamils – 11.2 percent, Moors (Muslims) – 9.2 percent, Indian Tamils – 4.2 percent and others (Burgers, etc.) –0.5 percent. Out of the above, Buddhists were 70.2 percent, Hindus – 12.6 percent, Muslims – 9.7 percent, Roman Catholics – 6.1 percent, Christians – 1.3 percent and others – 0.5 percent.

Etymology and history of moors (Muslims) in Sri Lanka
The Muslim population is mainly concentrated in four provinces, namely Eastern (569, 182), Western (450,505), North Western (250, 380) and Central (252 694).

Scholars are of the view that Sri Lankan Muslims are descendant of Marakkar, Memons and Pathans of South India. The Kechimalai Mosque, Beruwela, one of the oldest mosques in Sri Lanka, is believed to be the site where the first Arabs landed in Sri Lanka. The Moors had their own court of justice for settling their disputes. 

Upon the arrival of the Portuguese colonizers in the 16th century, a large population of Moors was expelled from cities such as Colombo, which had been a Moor-dominated city at the time. The Moors then migrated towards the east and were settled through the invitation of the Kingdom of Kandy and Robert Knox noted that the king of Kandy built mosques for the Moors.

In 1881, the population of Muslims was 184,500 and by 1946, prior to independence, it was 373,600, an increase of 29 percent. In 1971, the population was 828,300, an increase of 32.1 percent and by 2012, the population rose to 1,869,820, an increase of 39.6 percent.

From the above revelations it is evident that the Muslims of Sri Lanka are historically close to the Sinhalese and Tamils, who are the other main ethnic groups in the country. They have intermarried and live as one community throughout the country and it is surprising as to how the present communal and religious strife originated. The overtones for such unrest should be thoroughly investigated and the perpetrators should be given maximum punishment.

Political instability in Sri Lanka and communal violence
It is unfortunate that the communal violence that erupted in Ampara, Teldeniya, Digana and other parts of the Kandy administrative district let to the declaration of emergency after 2011. In addition to the emergency, certain parts of the district were under curfew. All this was a result of a young Sinhalese driver being assaulted by some drunken Muslim youths, who were travelling in a three-wheeler. It has been reported that the driver succumbed to his injuries.

The unrest in Ampara was on a fictitious accusation that a restaurant had mixed birth control pills and served food to the Sinhalese to reduce the Sinhalese population.

It has been reported that both these incidents were masterminded by extremist Sinhalese groups such as Mahason Balakaya and Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), who brought mobs in busses from outside. The government and the opposition, mainly the Sri Lanka Podujana Party (LPP), accused each other to be behind such extremists and accused each other in parliament. Some members of the SLPP, who are also in the United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA), accused each other of creating mayhem against the Muslims for political gain. 

The SLPP’s main accusation was that the government was trying to distance the Muslim community from them in order to reduce their vote base at future elections. The government accused the SLPP of creating a situation where the government will not be able to continue till 2020 and will call for a general election. 

The SLPP led by the former president is riding high as he feels that he can sweep the board at the next general election and his brother, the former defence secretary, will win handsomely at the presidential election, establishing the family rule in the country again. Most people are of the opinion that there will be discipline in the country with these changes.

However, as highlighted in my last article, the SLPP has no plan for economic and social stability of Sri Lanka and it is predicted that it will be just changing the pillow for the headache. A vociferous member of the SLPP, who always accuses the western powers and India, is at his old game again and is driving fear into our common masses.

Recommendations and conclusions
It is quite evident that the main political parties are not serious in bringing normalcy to the country. If they have the common people’s well-being and restore peace among communities, they should have gone together as a united group and seriously appealed to the people to restore calm. 

However, they went as separate groups and also accused each other of being behind these incidents or the government did not act effectively at the beginning. This clearly indicates that we are a divided nation and will remain so until honest politicians are elected by the common masses and serve irrespective of colour, race or religion.

In conclusion, I would like to quote from page 25 of ‘War and Peace in Sri Lanka’ by T.D.S.A. Dissanayake.

“In 1973, writing Dudley Senanayake of Sri Lanka, I interviewed S.J.V. Chelvanayagam several times. He repeatedly told me, “I am losing my struggle for federalism because of Bandaranayke, his widow and J.R. Jayewardene (the then Leader of the Opposition). I have always told you that if I fail, then the Tamil people will not ask for federalism but separatism.”

Chelvanaygam’s words came true when the 30-year separatist war was started in 1983 after 10 years but we are fortunate that our Sinhalese leaders had the foresight to not advocate federalism at that time. However, they did not seriously think of devolution of power to the Tamils without creating a federal state to the satisfaction of the minority.

The politicians should now seriously work out a long-term programme to bring amity and peace among all communities and religions and not allow racial riots to erupt again, especially between the Muslims and Sinhalese.

Let’s all work together in amity to make Sri Lanka truly the Wonder of Asia!
(Dulip Jayawardena, a retired Economic Affairs Officer United Nations ESCAP, can be contacted at 
[email protected])