SriLanka!
Institutional Decay perpetuated
ethnic conflict- Don!
[TamilNet,
February 05, 2005 13:36 GMT] Noting that from 1950s Sri Lanka's politicians
resorted to ethnic outbidding to attain power and in doing so systematically
marginalised the country's minority Tamils, Dr Neil Devotta from Hartwick
College New York, in an article published in Nations and Nationalism, argues
that "institutional decay. which was produced by the dialectic between
majority rule and ethnic outbidding, was what led to Tamil mobilisation
and an ethnic conflict that has killed nearly 70.000 people over
the past twenty years."
The article also "analyses
the influence informal societal pressures exerted on formal state institutions
and how this contributed to institutional decay. Evaluating the relations
that ensued between social organisations and the Sri Lankan state shows
how institutions can prescribe actions and fashion motives even as it will
make clear how the island's varied institutions generated a deadly political
dynamic that eventually unleashed the ongoing civil war."
"When a government in
a poly ethnic state utterly disregards minorities' legitimate preferences
and instead cavalierly institutes policies favouring a majority or
other community- which is precisely what ethnic outbidding engenders, those
marginalised lose confidence in the state's institutions. This could
easily promote reactive nationalism among those disfavoured and create
a milieu conducive to ethnic rivalry and conflict," DeVotta argues,
"If the marginalised group
is territorialised, and thereby has claims to a historical homeland, they
could mobilise to seek a separate existence. This is indeed the setting
for Sri Lanka's sad ethnic saga," DeVotta points out.
DeVotta describes the current
political culture as follows: "While it was linguistic nationalism
that initially galvanised the outbidding process, the country's [Sinhala]
political parties have on various issues so that the practice is now embedded
in the island's political culture. Enforced over forty years, this outbidding
phenomenon has severely undermined minority confidence in the country's
institutions and is mainly responsible for Tamil extremists seeking
a separate state."
"The Sri Lankan case makes
clear that outbidding and ethnocentrism can become embedded and path dependent.
Indeed, many Sinhalese benefited from the ethnocentric practices
successive governments pursued and they now protest against any proposal
that promotes devolution or dispassionate governance," DeVotta says reflecting
the reasons for the debilitating political discourse currently prevailing
in Sri Lanka.
DeVotta points out the importance
of institutions as follows: "...while these ethnocentric practices
have benefited the majority community, they have led to an illiberal democracy
and influenced the principal minority community to seek a separate state.
The majoritarian principle does not justify minority domination, and liberal
democracies are thus designed to eschew the tyranny of the majority. A
proper majoritarian system, especially in polyethnic settings, thus seeks
to encourage consensus politics as much as possible and thereby allay minority
fears."
"This is why institutions
are of paramount importance and also why an institutionalist approach is
better suited to explain Sri Lanka's ethnic conflict," DeVotta says.
"Parties
in power seek to promote dubious conflict resolution only to be checkmated
by the respective opposition. which typically claims that the proposed
solutions are bound to eventually dismember the island. This has especially
been evident in the past decade as the Bandaranaikes' daughter, President
Chandrika Kumaratunga. has tried to accommodate some Tamil demands when
the coalition she leads has had a majority in parliament but then sings
a different tune when her opponents control parliament.
"Such unprincipled politics
merely contributes to the political decay in the island and reiterates
that a lasting peace is unlikely until Sri Lanka's leaders can craft the
requisite institutions that would treat all citizens dispassionately,"
DeVotta concludes.
courtesy:tamilnet.com |