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History and Government
History: Sri Lanka was part of the Empire of Asoka in the third century, during which time the population was converted to Buddhism. The Sinhalese inhabitants later moved their capital to Polonnaruwa, in the south of the island, to escape from repeated Tamil invasions during the 11th and 12th centuries. The first Europeans to arrive were the Portuguese, who were quickly supplanted by the Dutch in the 17th century. The British acquired Sri Lanka (as Ceylon) from the Dutch in 1796. Administration of the island initially was shared between the East India Company and the Crown, however, the latter assumed full control in 1802. Sri Lanka (as Ceylon) eventually won independence in 1948. Past colonisation by the Indians, Portuguese, Dutch and British have all left their marks in architecture, customs, language and agriculture.
The country became a republic in 1972, adopting a new constitution along with the Sinhala name, Sri Lanka. The majority (70 per cent) of the population are Buddhists of Sinhalese descent, although the north and parts of the east of Sri Lanka are dominated by the Tamil population (15 per cent), Hindu by religion and ethnically linked to the Tamils of southern India. Serious conflict arose from the Tamil minority’s demands for a separate Tamil state, with terrorist activity by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (Tamil Eelam being the title of their notional independent state) prevalent since the 1970s. This provoked increasingly vigorous responses from the government.
The Indian government became involved in the conflict, initially as official mediator between the Tamils and the Sri Lankan government but then, after the failure of an armistice in 1987, it intervened militarily (on the government’s side). Its two-year military campaign ended with the death of over 1000 Indian soldiers and an ignominious retreat.
The assassination of Indian premier Rajiv Ghandi in 1991 was the apotheosis of the Tigers’ campaign of revenge for the Indian military campaign. After that, the war entered a period of effective stalemate, with each side gaining occasional advantage through upgrading, re-equipping or deployment of new tactics.
Outside the Tiger-controlled areas in the north and east – inside which the guerrillas had absolute authority – the political environment was dominated by the struggle between the country’s two main political groupings – the centre-right United National Party and the People’s Alliance (a coalition of social-democratic and socialist parties). The decisive election of recent times took place in 1995, when the UNP’s 17-year stranglehold on power was finally broken by the People’s Alliance, under Chandrikha Kumaratunga, another member of South Asia’s pantheon of formidable female politicians. (Her predecessor, Sirimavo Bandaranaike, was the world’s first female prime minister and held several terms of office between 1959 and 1977.) Kumaratunga won a second presidential term in 1999, although the UNP regained control of the national assembly in December 2001, under veteran politician Ranil Wickremasinghe.
Kumaratunga was determined to resolve the Tamil conflict. Despite a number of setbacks and with the discreet assistance of Norwegian negotiators, Kumaratunga had made considerable progress and was close to reaching a political settlement by the beginning of 2002. A deal between the government and the Tamil Tigers was finally concluded at the end of February 2002, when the two sides signed a formal ceasefire. Despite scepticism from many quarters and a number of serious incidents, the ceasefire has been maintained for the last twelve months. Furthermore, the island’s sizeable Muslim population, who were persecuted by both sides throughout the two-decade-long conflict, has also been brought into the political settlement. As with any conflict of that length and hostility, there are many issues to be resolved, however, Sri Lanka is now poised to enter a new era of peace and perhaps even prosperity. By the end of 2002, both sides had agreed on an outline formula for the future government of the Tamil-dominated northern and eastern parts of the island. As of February 2003, the details were the subject of ongoing negotiations.
Government: Executive power and legislative power are vested in the president and a single-chamber assembly respectively. The president is directly elected for a six-year term. The 255-member assembly is elected by proportional representation.
Copyright © 2003 Columbus Publishing Ltd.
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