How Should Sri Lanka Marginalise Ethnic Parties?
By Ameer Ali –August 12, 2015
Dr. Ameer Ali
It has become almost an unwritten convention in Sri Lankan party politics since the introduction of the Jayawardena constitution that the national parties like the SLFP and UNP enter into pre-election pact with minor ethnic parties in order to enhance their chances of forming governments. Such marriage of convenience inherently weakens the functioning of the government because of the ‘hold-up’ problem. It is risible to see in the current campaign that theSLMC is contesting under the UNP party symbol in certain electorates and in their own party symbol in others. How can a national party rationalise such behaviour of its ally? It is one thing to have an understanding with independent and minor party members in the parliament after the election when a government faces tough opposition to pass its legislative measures. Such dialogues and compromises are normal in all democracies which only make democracy more transparent and strong in action; but it is entirely a different ball game to come to a pact before the election with minor parties who are driven by narrow ethnic interests and ministerial positions. This will only aggravate the hold-up problem.
