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The Central Fallacy of the Electoral Representation in Sri Lanka

By Dr. Shantha K. Hennayake, Department of Geography, University of Peradeniya

Introduction
The purpose of this short article is to highlight what I call 'the central fallacy of the electoral representation' in Sri Lanka - the non-representation of the Sinhalese. This is first ironic and anomalous and second unfair, and unacceptable. It can, as non-representation always does, lead to destabilization of the Sri Lankan democracy.

Post independence Sri Lanka has been dominated by minority ethnic politics. In this process, all minority groups have established their own exclusive political parties and also their own exclusive territorial enclaves or homelands; a rudimentary form of ethnic-states. Eelam for Sri Lanka Tamils, Malainadu for Indian Tamils, South-Eastern Eastern Province (no Islamic name been yet coined) for Muslims. What is missing in this equation is that there is no exclusive territory for the Sinhalese. Sinhalese live in Sri Lanka while the minority ethnic groups live in Sri Lanka at large as well as in their own exclusive ethnic "homelands". Thus, they want exclusive rights within their "homelands" and all the rights in Sri Lanka as well. Sinhalese on the other hand have no exclusive rights anywhere and share the same rights with other ethnic groups.

The above situation has created a very anomalous system of representation. All people in Sri Lanka have individual rights as Sri Lankan citizens. However, minority ethnic groups have, in addition, de facto ethnic rights and ethno-territorial rights within their own exclusive regions. But Sinhalese do not enjoy such rights as they do not have, or more to the point, they have refused to claim exclusive ethnic homeland of their own, a fact that reveal the benevolent approach of the Sinhalese towards other people. However, in the strange democracy that Sri Lanka is today, the above situation has made Sinhalese a non-representative as an ethnic group in the country.

All People should be represented in a Democracy

A democracy, if it is to function properly, must truly represent all the people. By virtue of the fact that Sri Lanka is a democracy with the right and freedom to vote (at least in theory, in the light of recent development) the 'individual' is represented. Liberalism has triumphed. But contemporary politics world over and in Sri Lanka has demonstrated, in no uncertain terms, that individual rights alone is adequate and or acceptable for a smooth functioning of a democracy. In Sri Lanka, all the minority ethnic groups have explicitly demanded that they have specific group grievances and rights and that they be recognized as distinctive groups with exclusive territories of their own. They have explicitly worked towards this in several ways

1. Forming explicitly ethnic political parties (e.g. Tamil Ilankai Arasu Kadchi, Tamil Congress, Ceylon Workers Congress Sri Lanka Muslim Congress)

2. Taking ethnocentric positions on most issues facing the country and maintaining a disinterest on national issues unless it explicitly affects their own ethnic group

3. Directly claiming exclusive ethnic regions (North and Eastern Provinces by the Sri Lanka Tamils, South Eastern Eastern Province by Muslims, Nuwara Eliya and the vicinity by Indian Tamils)

Within this context, are the Sinhalese been recognized and represented as a group? No, not at all. The two major political parties (United National Party and the Sri Lanka Freedom Party?), which have formed the governments alone or with other minority political parties, are not explicitly nor implicitly Sinhalese political parties, and the government formed by them as Sinhalese governments, although the Tamil ethnonationalists from Prabhakarn to Ponnambalam label them so. This is evident from three obvious facts. First, the two major parties have a significant non-Sinhalese support base. Even at the height of the democratic ethnonationalist politics of Tamils in the late 1970s, the two major parties received a significant vote in the Tamil areas of the Northern and Eastern Provinces and also in the plantation areas. These two parties have always fared well in Muslim enclaves scattered around the country including South-Eastern Eastern Province where the Muslims are highly concentrated.

Second, both major parties have frequently fielded candidates from the minority ethnic groups even in Sinhalese majority areas. The Sinhalese have not hesitated to vote for the non-Sinhalese candidates fielded by the two major parties. While this is the case, we are yet to see a Sinhalese given candidacy by a Tamil political party or being elected in Tamil areas.

Third, from the Sinhalese point of view and even from an objective statistical point of view, the two major political parties have divided the Sinhalese ethnic group right down the middle. Thus if the two parties have achieved any thing for the Sinhalese, it is nothing but division which has led to disastrous consequences to the Sinhalese themselves. The political rhetoric and the expediency of the two political parties have made the party cleavage among the Sinhalese more powerful than the Sinhalese identity itself. Sinhalese are today therefore first a UNPer or a PAer and then, a reluctant Sinhalese. Under the present PA administration, explicit expression of Sinhaleseness has received detestation as chauvinism and racism. Some of the spokesmen of and for the government who went around the country is promoting the "devolution package" blamed the Sinhalese creating for the cd;sjdoS .egtj. Here is an example of one of the two major parties taking an explicitly anti-Sinhala stand. Sinhala bashing has been elevated to new heights by this government with so called liberal intellectuals who advice the government leading the onslaught.

Ever since independence, the two major parties through various agreements with minority ethnic political parties formed the governments never genuinely represented the Sinhalese directly or indirectly. If the two parties did pay attention to Sinhalese interests, it was mostly as means to an end - come to power or to stay in power. If the two parties have genuinely represented the Sinhalese as the Tamil ethnonationalists have alleged, then why is there a growing concern in the Sinhalese, civil society for injustices and dangers the Sinhalese face as an ethnic group (as exemplified by general sentiments expressed by the ordinary Sinhalese, the statements made by the Buddhist religious leaders and last but not least by the findings of the Sinhalese Commission). The problems of the Sinhalese have been much elaborated by such prominent authors as Nalin de Silva, Sudath Gunasekara, and H.L. Gunasekara. But as a result of the so called "liberalism" , which has become an expedient strategy of the two political parties to keep the minorities happy, the Sinhalese in fact has become the most unrepresented group in the country.

Sinhalese: the rural poor The Sinhalese, statistically, are the majority ethnic group in the country, a fact that Tamil ethnonationalists find very inconvenient reality in Sri Lanka. The majority of the Sinhalese consists of rural poor peasants. If the Sinhalese are not represented as an ethnic group in Sri Lanka, are they, at least, represented as a socio-economic group? Once again the answer is no. The lack of representation of the rural poor in the country is eloquently expressed by Mick Moor (….) in his Peasant Politics in Sri Lanka. He points out that although the majority of the Parliamentarians get elected from rural poor electoral base, their interests have remain unrepresented. The rural poor continued to remain as rural poor throughout the post-independence period. Some argue that they have in fact become poorer.

The non-representation of rural poor can be attributed to three reasons. First, during the post-independence era, the parliamentarians of both political parties, who get elected from a rural poor electoral base have mostly represented the interests of the urban consumer who have been more vocal and organized. Some scholars have argued that we have never had an effective rural development programs. The impact of 'green revolution' although may have doubled the paddy production, certainly has not achieved the same for the standard of living of the paddy farmer.

Second, as a result of the increasing authoritarianism within the party organizations of both major political parties, parliamentarians no longer represent the people who vote them into power but the wishes of the party leadership who can remove them from power without having to answer the voters. Third, the division of the rural poor along the party lines has prevented them from organizing themselves as a pressure or lobby group. Thus, although the rural poor constitute the largest socio-economic group in the country they remain unrepresented, unorganized and divided. Thus, Sinhalese remain unrepresented both as an ethnic group and as a socio-economic group.

Survival Strategy of the Elite. The draconian colonial policy of "divide and rule" has found a new followers among the elite political leaders of the two major political parties in Sri Lanka. Both these political parties depend on the Sinhalese electorate to come to power, when, at least, the elections (not frauds labeled as elections) are held. The strategy of the two parties have been thus to divide the Sinhalese electorate as strongly as possible to ensure a ready block of vote. The intensification of the division of the Sinhalese along party lines was a product of three factors. First, is the patron-client relationship that the post independence governments have mastered through politicians directly and indirectly becoming the chief recruitment officer for government jobs and a powerful decision maker in awarding contracts for government sponsored development projects. Second, is the increasing politicization of the society and the public service. Finally the politicians gaining an upper hand thorough subtle as well as direct manipulation and even abuse of the constitution and legislative and executive powers, specially since 1970s to appease the supporters and to harass the opponents. All these have created an almost unbridgeable cleavage in the Sinhalese society. The party leaders have in their own logic and wisdom which is too far away from the interests of the Sinhalese have had no hesitation to openly advocated this division in the society. In the recent years, the use of violence too has become an instrument of this division of the Sinhalese.

This division along party lines has deeply weakened the Sinhalese as a group and it has become almost impossible to unite the Sinhalese for any common cause no matter how significant it is for the Sinhalese in particular and the country in general. The two political parties have succeeded in preventing the Sinhalese masses rallying around any common grievance. For example, when all Sinhalese were deeply saddened by the LTTE bombing of the Dalada Maligawa, the present government who is responsible for creating the context for this unfortunate incident, downplayed the event and some high ranking politicians went so far as to almost downplay this religio-cultural crime by stating that it has been a recurrent event in the history.

The worst of all is the attempt by the two political parties, especially when in power, both overtly and covertly to discredit and disrupt any attempt in the civil society to rally the Sinhalese on a common theme. The two classic examples of this are first the negative reaction of the present government to the Sinhala Commission and the hostile attitude of the present government towards any person or organization, which stands for and on behalf of the Sinhalese. For example, a minister of the present government tried to dismiss the Sinhala Commission findings by saying that it will find its place in the "dustbin of history". The political leaders of the present government along with their "advisors" who at one point went full steam ahead with 'thawlamas' to build a Sri Lankan nation blamed those who speak for the Sinhalese as chauvinists, racists and even traitors. The government was able to buy collaborators from among the Sinhalese (and among them were Sinhalese Buddhist monks) to go against those Sinhalese who were speaking for the Sinhalese. In the eyes of the ordinary Sinhalese, the government appears to be on an anti-Sinhala crusade.

What the two political parties, specially the PA, have not realized is that over the years, their approach, attitude and treatment of the Sinhalese has frustrated and even infuriated the Sinhalese to the extent that they have begun to distrust and disapprove both the parties. A resurgence of Sinhalese to exert their identity, safeguard their rights, uphold their dignity and above all ensure their safety and survival is an inevitable outcome of the non-representation of Sinhalese by the expedient behaviour two major political parties.

Over representation of minorities While the Sinhalese as a group is un-represented in Sri Lankan politics, the story of the ethnic minorities is quite the opposite. As pointed out earlier, the Sri Lanka Tamils, Indian Tamils, and the Muslims have their own ethic political parities to represent them. The candidates who get elected to the parliament from these political parties have consistently taken an ethnic-centric stand. The two main parties in their bid to form the government often had to depend on the support of the minority political parties. Thus, although the major parties have relatively more seats in the parliament, they are effectively controlled by the minority ethnic parties. The effective power of the smaller ethnic political parties has thus become very much exaggerated in the Parliament. Thus, the representative capacity of a minority voter is far higher than that of a Sinhalese. To that extent, the minorities are over-represented in Sri Lankan government.

The bargaining power of the minority ethnic party Members of Parliament is much higher because they stand united as ethnic parties, a power that is denied to the Sinhalese by the expedient and revengeful politics of the two major parties. Clear examples of the recent past of an exaggerated representative power of minority ethnic voters can be seen in first S.Thondaman serving in the cabinet of both the UNP and PA government and second when the President had to give into M.H.M Ashroff at the last cabinet reshuffle. The minority ethnic parties are too happy to be part of this game as it provides them with the opportunity to perform their "ethnic duty" more effectively.

The exaggerated power of the minority ethnic vote find its way through the Parliament back to the people in the civil society. There are numerous occasions in the ordinary and not so ordinary dealings in the society where the minorities find themselves in more advantageous positions vis a vis the Sinhalese. Bulldozing a centuries old ruins of Buddhist Dhagabos, even after informing not to do so to the proper authorities can only happened because of the exaggerated power of the SLMC and the non-representation of the Sinhalese. Similarly, the open support for LTTE by Kumar Ponnambalam, an act violating the Constitution is only possible because of the exaggerated power of Tamils and non-representation of the Sinhalese.

Revisions to Electoral System After the so called election in Wayamba some "pundits" in the government have discovered for the first time that the problem is with the present electoral system dominated by the proportional representation! They now propose remedial electoral systems which seems to be too complicated for the ordinary voter. The problems is not with the law but with the undemocratic and corrupt practices of politicians, specially those in power, and with those politicians who maintain convenient silence when the culprits are from the same political party. In this context, the exercises of manipulating the electoral system remind us of the old Sinhalese saying "mh nrjdhg msglr fnfy;a n|skakd fia'" These pundits do not want to go back to the "first past the post" system, not because of the many defects that it inherits but because many of the politicians who are now in power but without any real touch with the ordinary masses, will never be able to get elected let alone become Ministers.

The proposed revisions to the electoral system may be good for the power hungry individuals and political parties but none of them can resolve the fallacy of non-representation of the Sinhalese. These manipulations have in fact increased the effective power of the minority voter relative to the Sinhalese. This is evident in the pro-minority campaign of the two political parties, especially at the presidential elections.

How can the Sinhalese be Represented?

No amount of tampering, (I prefer this term to the term revisions as it really represent what the present politicians are attempting to do) of the electoral system we have today will solve the problem of the fallacy of non-representation of the Sinhalese. The problem is not one of the proportional representation or first past the post system. The problem is the division of the Sinhalese along party lines and their inability to organize as a singular and monolithic political entity.

What then are the alternatives available for the Sinhalese to ensure that they are effectively represented in Sri Lankan politics?

The obvious solution is for the two parties to get together at least on common issues affecting the Sinhalese. This, however, is unlikely given the current behaviour of the two political parties. Many a call to the leadership of the two parties for a united approach to some nationally significant issues have fallen into deaf ears. The low level to which the two parties have sunk in attacking each other is symptomatic of their inability to work together on any issue let alone the interests of the Sinhalese. The two parties seem to be pathologically condemned to hate each other and the leadership of the two parties appear to suffer from this terminal cancer. There is no hope in the two political parties for the Sinhalese who want to be represented within the Sri Lankan political system. The other political parties such as JVP and MEP also do not offer a viable alternative for the Sinhalese.

Sinhalese can also follow the failed model of the Sinhalese commission where the grievances are neatly organized and presented to the political leaders of one or the other two political parties who are responsible for the problem to begin with. This reminds us of another Sinhalese saying fydrdf.a ^fyrSf.a to be fair to the feminists) wuudf.ka fmak wykjd jf..' These exercises achieve nothing but playing into the very diversionary party politics as the Opposition will always try to capitalize on any act that challenges the government. The government on the other hand will try to discredit such acts as extensions of the Opposition.

Sinhalese can strengthen their power in the civil society thorough Sinhalese organizations. Sinhalese masses should be made conscious of the fact that as a group they are not only the statistical majority but they constitute the block with the largest purchasing power and the largest number of consumers, farmers and employees. The Sinhalese need to be self-conscious of these powers they possess and mobilize these powers to pressurize the governments to heed to their demands. Instead of reactionary strategies such as complaining to and pleading with the government, blaming the minority political parties, lamenting over the grievances, documenting the injustices, organizing talks, the Sinhalese should take the active approach and exercise their powers in the civil society. The Sinhalese can expect the government to use all its powers legal and extra-legal to prevent the Sinhalese from exercising these powers as it will undermine their support base. The Opposition will neither support nor oppose it but hopes that the government would suppress (and get the blame) as it would undermine their support base too. The minority ethnic political parties, which conveniently support or/and, oppose the government, could also rally against such efforts by the Sinhalese. As previous governments have not hesitated to act irresponsibly and undemocratically using whatever means available to suppress legitimate and democratic challenges, any movements of the Sinhalese to strengthen their civil society can come under severe pressure and even threat from the government. Strengthening civil society organizations of the Sinhalese is good to spread the message and to symbolically show their power ( as achieved by the Sinhala Commission ), but it will not remedy the fallacy of non-representation of the Sinhalese.

Thus, the Sinhalese are left with one alternative, the formation of a Sinhalese Political Party. In a democracy the best and the most effective way to represent a group is to have their own political party. Even LTTE has a front political party. A political party is democratic and legal and it is entitled to some rights and privileges not available to other civil society organizations. The Sinhalese should capitalize on these and move towards forming a political party.

The Sinhalese Political Party should have the declared policy of democratically safeguarding the interests of the Sinhalese as its prime objective.

The Sinhalese Political Party should not be condemned to live in the history, which is as the Sinhala Commission pointed out, full of injustices. The Party should be forward looking and prevent any further injustices occurring to the Sinhalese.

The Sinhalese Political Party should also acknowledge the fact that minority ethnic groups are an integral part of Sri Lanka and that the ordinary people of these minority ethnic groups are not responsible for the injustices meted out to the Sinhalese. The philosophy of the Sinhalese Political Party should be that of Sinhalese playing the role of an elder brother to the minority ethnic groups. The Sinhalese political party should work in collaboration with other ethnic political parties in ensuring that neither the Sinhalese nor any of the other ethnic groups will face any injustices in future Sri Lanka.

The Sinhalese Political Party should be formed now. There is a general and widespread dissatisfaction among the Sinhalese with the two major political parties as evident from the analytical slogans Wkq;a tlhs uqkq;a tlhs and the prescriptive slogan Wkq;a tmd uqkq;a tmd' The road is clear and the passengers are waiting only the vehicle is not there. It is very important that this party is built on the principle of democracy, unlike the authoritarian model of the two major political parties. Religious leaders should be an integral part of this political party, but only as advisors and patrons and not as active politicians.

The Sinhalese Political Party will have an uphill task. The Sinhala Political Party may not come to power overnight to form a government of its own. It need not. It may not win even a single seat in its early attempts given the daunting task of salvaging the Sinhalese from decades long deception, division and hatred created mutually by the two political parties. However, the Sinhalese Political Party should be kept alive, strong and energetic until it becomes a force to be reckoned with in Sri Lankan politics. If a start is made today, that day is not too far away.

Let us hope and work for a better tomorrow for all Sinhalese. Let us hope for the day when the Sinhalese can be proud of their ethnicity and heritage without any hesitation and fear.

Let us hope that we will have true and honest Sinhalese leaders who can bring prosperity to this country in its fullest sense. That is what the Sinhalese have always wanted and wished (although it was denied to them all this time).

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