Dilrook Kannangara

All of Sri Lanka’s miseries and problems boil down to its multiethnic nature which has led to conflicting policy priorities. One avenue of approach which may benefit one group, is not very beneficial to the other two groups. As a result, Sri Lanka is stuck in this trijunction unable to move. This is why the NPP regime despite 159 seats in parliament and the executive president is unable to make any real change. It is safe to just sit in the middle of the trijunction than move in any single direction and hurt the aspirations or sentiments of one or more tribe.

Don’t be misled by transactional issues and basic human needs like food, gas, fuel and the like. A nation that truly develops has far better things to consider and accomplish than daily living needs. Though daily struggles unify people of all ethnic groups, national issues and the direction the nation should take that divides them.

In the past there were five (5) instances when the ruling party had 2/3 majority to make radical changes. Some regimes with 2/3 parliamentary power did make far reaching changes that benefitted the country at that time. These include SWRD, Sirima (1970-77), JR, Mahinda and Gota. However, almost the entirety of their 2/3 was made up of Sinhala MPs and very few minority MPs who were either appointed to parliament by the national list or who had no other avenue of survival. 

It was easy to make radical changes and follow a determined pathway. Though it had challenges, the nation mostly benefited, faced war and won and remained financially afloat (except the one headed by Gota).

However, the NPP regime has elected MPs from every district and a sizable number of minority MPs. Excluding minority MPs, the NPP regime has less than 140 seats. 

Given parliamentary hostility and fragmentation, other party MPs are not going to support their moves.

This is the fate of the party that won the north and the south, the east and the west and the centre of the country and unified it for the first time in election history. It is not the fault of the NPP. It is the very nature of multiethnic Sri Lanka which will be stuck in this multiethnic rut forever.

When other Asian nations like Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Maldives, Vietnam and other mono-ethnic nations advance rapidly, Sri Lanka and multi-ethnic nations are stuck in a rut. Singapore is a rare exception and without compulsory military service imposed on every 18-year-old, no country can become the next Singapore though some Sri Lankans dream of Singapore’s riches without suffering the pain it goes through to achieve those riches. India is a divided nation from what was once a larger nation which included Pakistan and Bangladesh. Had British India remained one large and far more diverse nation with Pakistan and Bangladesh post-Independence, it too would have been bogged down in the same rut Sri Lanka is in.