Constitutional Reforms & Ethnic Coexistence: On The Kandy Forum’s Submission
By Mahendran Thiruvarangan –March 11, 2016
Mahendran Thiruvarangan
The government’s move to gather people’s proposals on constitutional reforms has created an opportunity for diverse social and political groups to present their vision for Sri Lanka’s future. The proposals made by the Kandy Forum on the status of the Eastern Province and the political concerns of the non-territorial minorities in Sri Lanka need special mention because they frame devolution as a creative project while acknowledging its limits. Unlike several other federalist proposals which call for a merged North-Eastern province with a non-contiguous Muslim unit or a separate Muslim province within it, the Kandy Forum’s proposals make the point that the separate, contiguous Eastern Province that exists today should be retained:
“The Eastern Province could be a model for co-existence of communities in Sri Lanka. It is the only Province in Sri Lanka that has a near equal ethnic balance, where the Tamils constitute 39.79%, Muslims constitute 36.72% and the Sinhalese constitute 23.15%. It is an ideal situation for the evolution of a model for ethnic pluralism, good governance and peaceful coexistence and this province could be equipped with special constitutional provisions to strengthen inter-ethnic relationships within and between other regions.”
Why is it that ethnicity should always be the framing logic of devolution everywhere in Sri Lanka? Why can’t we consider ethnic coexistence, rather than individuated ethnic identities, as the basis for power sharing when we think about regional autonomy for at least some parts of Sri Lanka like the Eastern Province or the Colombo municipal region? Sometimes it is important that we retain, as solutions to ethnic conflicts, existing territorial boundaries that produce culturally heterogeneous territories, instead of creating non-contiguous ethnic enclaves that cleanse territories of cultural differences, even if those boundaries are colonial in origin or imposed from the top. Because such boundaries underscore the importance of harmonious cohabitation across and despite differences at the local and regional levels, and prevent ethnicity, religion and culture from over-determining our political and social lives. And these boundaries which actively include rather than exclude differences remind us again and again, in our everyday lives, of the importance of acting with a sense of responsibility toward the Other, the ones who do not speak our language and the ones who do not worship our god(s). It is these boundaries that have the potential to create a vibrant cosmopolitical public culture and public space necessary for all the communities to co-inhabit the earth peacefully in the long-run, even as constitutions ought to recognize and territorialize ethnic identities time to time taking into consideration the historical contexts that produce them. In this respect, the Kandy Forum’s creative framing of the Eastern Province as a model for ethnic co-existence in Sri Lanka should be applauded.
