Question

what lesson do we grt from the experience of Belgium and srilanka

Answer 1

Belgium was following accomadation and Sri lanka was following majoritarism..

Answer 2

Question-

What do we learn from the two stories of Belgium and Sri Lanka?

Answer-

Belgium and Sri Lanka are two different countries which practice two forms of power sharing.

Belgium-

• Belgium practices the type of power sharing known as "Accomodation".
• In this type of power sharing, everyone is treated equally.
• The minorities are not alienated.
• Belgium is composed of mainly of three linguistic group, namely Dutch, French and German.
• 59% of the people of the Flemish region speak Dutch whereas 40% of the people of the Wallonia region speak French. The rest 1% speak German. In the capital city of Brussels, 80% of people speak French and 20% speak Dutch.
• The Belgium leaders understood the social differences and cultural diversities among the people of Belgium.
• The constitution of Belgium was amended a total of 4 times between 1970 and 1993.
• The Dutch speaking ministers and the French speaking ministers are equally represented in the government of Brussels. Also, the number of Dutch and French speaking ministers should be the same in the central government as prescribed by the constitution.
• There is also a community government which is elected by the people of the same social, linguistic or educational group.

Sri Lanka-

• Sri Lanka practices a form of power sharing called "Majoritarianism".
• Sri lanka is made up of the Sinhalas and the Tamils.
• 74% of the people are Sinhalas whereas 18% of the people are Tamils. Out of the 18%, 15% are Indian tamils and 3% are the Sri Lankan Tamils.
• The Sinhalas are mainly buddhists while the Tamils are both hindus and muslims. 7% of the population are christians.
• Sinhalas are the majority whereas the Tamils are the major minority in the country.
• Sri lanka gave preferential policies to the Sinhala applicants in university positions, government jobs etc.
• This created a feeling of alienation in the Tamils. They felt that they were being ignored.
• This led to a civil war.

As we can see from the short description given above, we learn that supressing the minority is a harmful thing not only for the minority but also the majority in the long term. We should respect the social differences and cultural differences of the people, as we have seen in the case of Belgium. Or else, Sri Lanka is a good example of what will happen.

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Sentian here.