By Madhuri Ranasinghe
In the aftermath of the 2024 Presidential Election, a wave of criticism arose on social media, with many supporters of the winning party, predominantly from the Sinhalese Buddhist majority, claiming that areas where the former opposition leader, viewed by some as incompetent and unwise, secured votes were predominantly backed by the Tamils in the North-eastern areas. These supporters attributed the voting patterns to a perceived lack of education among the Tamil population.
This narrative states that the Tamil minority votes for a particular leader due to a “lack of education,” which reflects an unfounded and biassed generalisation. Such an assertion oversimplifies the complex socio-political motivations of minority communities, dismissing the possibility that their political choices could be driven by legitimate concerns such as economic, social, or regional inequalities or differing political priorities. The inability to discern the political aspirations of fellow citizens to a fair share of political, social and economic power, among others, is a curse we are still delving ourselves into, and we are yet to see a light ahead either.
To elaborate on this predisposition, it is worth looking at recent incidents that took place in Sri Lanka. At a recent meeting, Tilvin Silva, the General Secretary of the ruling Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a major part of National People’s Power (NPP), said devolution of powers to Tamils in the North-East “is not essential. He also noted that the demands of the Tamils in the North-East are predominantly economic. Acknowledging the language barrier, Tilvin noted that Tamils often have to travel to Colombo even for their medical check-ups and the economic prosperity is largely dispersed in the Jaffna city limits. However, Bimal Rathnayake, a longstanding member of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) and national executive member of National People’s Power (NPP), declined this in Vavuniya when asked and assured that “The NPP is committed to resolving the ethnic and cultural issues that communities face in the country”.
There is still confusion on where the JVP/NPP stands on devolution, who is now set to secure a large number of seats in the parliament in the next general election after their historic win in the presidential election of 2024. They oppose the Thirteenth Amendment and power devolution decades back, which is a sensitive topic in terms of the political aspirations of the Tamil community in Sri Lanka. One can point out that NPP predominately represents the majority of the Sri Lankan population, seemingly clueless and insensitive to the political aspirations of the Tamil community, cornering their demands to the developmental or economic aspects only. Since the majority is undermining the national issue, consistently disregarding the Tamil minority’s political aspirations, Sri Lankan voting patterns follow the same.
One other way to dissect this is to look through the post-colonial nations or small island economies lens to understand how colonialism contributed to an already rich cultural heritage and certain malpractices, as observed by Neil DeVotta in his research. He noted that the colonial period also influenced Sinhalese Buddhist majoritarianism in Sri Lanka. This could indicate further division among the larger masses to close-knit social structures that might exacerbate the fear of outsiders, which are also denominations we can examine to understand this closed nature of many Sri Lankans.
Sinhalese Buddhists representing the vast majority, who are taught to be full of mercy, kindness and compassion towards others despite who they are, turned into this self-centred and egocentric ethnic group is a deep topic to investigate. I am sure this could shed some light on the strategic insights we are to embody if, as a country, we are ready for development and how we can dismantle the post-colonial dilemma that sparked the inward mindset among the populace.
We also saw how the public reacted harshly to the restructuring of SOEs in 2023 and even years before. Some argue that higher state involvement in the business and the welfare state was the issue of the economic crisis. However, 42% of the Sri Lankan population believed in the 2024 presidential election that Sri Lanka was infested by the corrupt political community, alleging election quotes such as “ 76 years of Curse” & “No 225”. Many of them seem to think that it is the underlying problem of underdevelopment we are experiencing today.
Many of them also had this idea that such SOEs are “National Treasures”, which implies a national obligation to protect and secure their right to them. When we say “National Treasures”, this often means this belongs to Sri Lankans irrespective of ethnicity, although, in Sri Lanka, the word “National” and what it interprets is often omitted or treated disproportionately to a significant portion of the population. This is the reason we all should think deeply about what Sri Lanka means to us and what being a Sri Lankan translates to in values if we need to prosper as a country together.