How can you say that the lack of power Sharing arrangement led to socio-political instability in Sri
Lanka (3marks)
Answers
Explanation:
sri lanka is located south of India. This island nation has a diverse population of two crore people. In Sri Lanka, the major social groups are the Sinhala-speakers (74 percent) and the Tamil-speakers (18 percent). Tamils in Sri Lanka were divided into two groups:
Sri Lankan Tamils (13 percent) – Tamil natives of the country
Indian Tamils (5 percent) – came from India during the colonial period as plantation workers
Sinhala-speaking people are mainly Buddhists while the Tamil speaking people were either Hindus or Muslims. There was even 7 percent Christians, who are both Tamil and Sinhala.
Majoritarianism in Sri Lanka
In Sri Lanka, the democratically elected government opted for a series of Majoritarian policy measures because they desired Sinhala supremacy. Some of the measures taken were:
Sinhala was the only official language.
The governments followed preferential policies and Sinhala applicants.
This made the Sri Lankan Tamils feel alienated. As a result of this, the Sri Lankan Tamils launched parties and began struggles for the recognition of Tamil as an official language. By the 1980s several political organisations were formed. They demanded for an independent Tamil Eelam (state) in northern and eastern parts of Sri Lanka. All this soon turned into a Civil War, thereby, causing distress in the nation.
Accommodation in Belgium
From 1970 to 1993, the constitution of Belgian was amended four times. The idea was to work out an arrangement that would make everyone to live together. Key elements of the Belgian model are:
The number of Dutch and French-speaking ministers shall be equal in the central government.
Certain powers of the central government were given to state governments of the two regions of the country.
There was a separate government for Brussels in which both the communities had equal representation.
There was a provision of ‘community government’ that was elected by people belonging to one language.
Hence, it was a fairly better alternative than the majoritarian policy of Sri Lanka.