Majoritarianism in Sri Lanka

Majoritarianism in Sri Lanka Sri Lanka emerged as an independent country in . The leaders of the Sinhala community sought to secure dominance over government by virtue of their majority. As a result, the democratically elected government adopted a series of majoritarian measures to establish Sinhala supremacy. In , an Act was passed to recognise Sinhala as the only official language, thus disregarding Tamil. The governments followed preferential policies that favoured Sinhala applicants for university positions and government jobs. A new constitution stipulated that the state shall protect and foster Buddhism. All these government measures, coming one after the other, gradually increased the feeling of alienation among the Sri Lankan Tamils. They felt that none of the major political parties led by the Buddhist Sinhala leaders was sensitive to their language and culture. They felt that the constitution and government policies denied them equal political rights, discriminated against them in getting jobs and other opportunities and ignored their interests. As a Majoritarianism: A belief that the majority community should be able to rule a country in whichever way it wants, by disregarding the wishes and needs of the minority. What kind of a solution is this? I am glad our Constitution does not say which minister will come from which community. The Belgian leaders took a different path. They recognised the existence of regional differences and cultural diversities. Between and , they amended their constitution four times so as to work out an arrangement that would enable everyone to live together within the same country. The arrangement they worked out is different from any other country and is very innovative. Here are some of the elements of the Belgian model:  Constitution prescribes that the number of Dutch and French-speaking ministers shall be equal in the central government. Some special laws require What’s wrong if the majority community rules? If Sinhalas don’t rule in Sri Lanka, where else will they rule? the support of majority of members from each linguistic group. Thus, no single community can make decisions unilaterally.  Many powers of the Central Government have been given to State Governments of the two regions of the country. The State Governments are not subordinate to the Central Government.  Brussels has a separate government in which both the communities have equal representation. The French- speaking people accepted equal representation in Brussels because the Dutch-speaking community has accepted equal representation in the