斯里兰卡政治危机十问

斯里兰卡总统库马拉通加宣布解散议会提前进行选举是执政党统一国民党与在野党人民联盟之间权力斗争的继续。统一国民党将以继续推进和平进程和恢复经济为竞选纲领 ,人民联盟将以政府向猛虎组织让步过多为由煽动民族情绪 ,捞取选票。但两党都没有获胜的把握。     

Constitutional Contestation of Religion in Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT

Sri Lanka’s constitutional policy regarding religion affords the ‘foremost place’ to Buddhism and obligates the state to protect and foster the Buddha Sasana, whilst assuring the rights and freedoms of the other religions. By explicitly creating a special status for Buddhism, the constitution has produced the category of the ‘Other’ that has the potential to discriminate against minorities in a pluralistic society and to undermine the fundamental principle of equality. The creation of this distinction generated contestation during constitutional reforms. By examining reform proposals on religion, interview material and comparing the debates of the Constitutional Assembly (October/November 2017) with the Constituent Assembly debates (1970–71), this study retraces the evolution of the Buddhism Chapter and identifies the present contestations and their role in deciding a constitutional arrangement for religion.     

Acute and Everyday Violence in Sri Lanka

Police torture in Sri Lanka has been subject to extensive investigation and condemnation but remains a widespread and seemingly entrenched practice. Seeking to understand the resistance of such practices to existing interventions, this article locates the police’s use of torture within a broader geography of social violence in Sri Lanka. We discuss the findings of extensive fieldwork conducted in the north-west of Sri Lanka where we examined not only police behaviour and interactions between police and the broader community but also the social dynamics relationships more generally. One significant finding was that violence against certain types of people, including police use of torture against such people, is generally accepted, even as the police are broadly criticised in the community for their unethical and ineffective behaviour. Another significant finding was that the society is riven with social hierarchies and that patterns of domination are embedded in social, political and symbolic systems. We conclude that police torture needs to be understood against the background of broader cultural practices whereby social subjects are disciplined and policed to produce appropriate citizens and punish social boundary violations.     

Globalisation and the garment industry in Sri Lanka

The objective of this article is to explain how globalisation, the phase-out of MFA and regionalisation affect the development of the garment industry in Sri Lanka. The article starts with a discussion of the key concepts of globalisation and regionalisation, followed by a presentation of the analytical framework, including a theoretical discussion of winners and losers in commodity networks. It is argued that regionalisation may exacerbate the problems that the Sri Lankan garment industry has already experienced in terms of globalisation. In addition to the limited industrial development effects that are the outcome of the functional division of labour, regionalisation makes it even harder to obtain market access. It is likely that Sri Lanka continues to be tied in, both to the European and American trading blocks for the production of some good quality and reasonably priced standardised garments for the middle market. However, to be tied in as a supplier of standardised products for the middle market is a vulnerable position, especially when the market is flat and lead firms and buyers in the network pass down adjustment costs to the suppliers. When manufacturers earn low levels of profits, the prospects of reinvestment in production and sustained industrial upgrading are negligible.     

The Structural Limits of Depoliticisation in Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT

Sri Lanka’s institutional reform project has gathered momentum with the enactment of the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution. The Amendment restored the Constitutional Council, which is mandated to recommend and approve appointments to key ‘independent’ institutions and offices. This article asks what it means to be meaningfully ‘depoliticised’, and explores the dynamics and parameters of the current institutional reform project in Sri Lanka. It argues that the entrenchment of Sinhala-Buddhist majoritarianism within Sri Lanka’s institutional structures has led to ‘institutional decay’. Given such decay, the article points to serious limitations in legalistic approaches that are preoccupied with improving appointment procedures. Since institutions in Sri Lanka are structurally incentivized to appease a majoritarian agenda, relying on legal-textual and institutional reform alone is inadequate. Institutional reform is ultimately constrained by the structural limits of Sri Lanka’s current constitutional framework. The article concludes that meaningful constitutional transformation requires a long-term project that aims to transform the majoritarian socio-political and cultural norms that underpin Sri Lanka’s constitutional order.     

斯里兰卡和平进程之我见

斯里兰卡种族问题是殖民主义统治的产物。独立后种族矛盾激化 ,并发展到国内战争。政府政策的偏差是其主要原因。目前正在进行的斯里兰卡政府与泰米尔猛虎组织之间的和平谈判取得重大进展 ,使人们看到了斯里兰卡和平的曙光 ,但也存在一些不确定因素。     

Anti-Tamil Riots and the political crisis in Sri Lanka

Abstract

“Have a taste of Paradise” says the advertising blurb of Air Lanka, the national airline. But on July 24, 1983, the island paradise for tourists turned into a veritable hell for its Tamil-speaking inhabitants, with fire and smoke engulfing the capital city of Colombo. Within days, rioting spread throughout Sri Lanka in a wave of assaults against the Tamils in almost all the towns and plantation areas. For nearly a week, mob rule prevailed and lynching was the order of the day.     

大选后的斯里兰卡政治形势

自由党和人民解放阵线组成的新党--统一人民自由联盟在斯里兰卡第十三届议会选举中获胜,使僧伽罗人的极端民族主义势力取得了执政党的地位,而代表泰米尔猛虎组织参选的泰米尔国民联盟和推举佛教僧侣直接参加选举的僧伽罗民族传统党也进入了议会,又使斯里兰卡议会实际上成了僧伽罗人和泰米尔人民族冲突直接对撞的场所.在这种复杂的政治局面下,库马拉通加夫人要推进和平进程可能会遇到更大困难,新的政治危机仍然可能出现.     

The Executive and the Constitutional Reforms Process in Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT

The debate on whether the executive presidential system which was introduced to Sri Lanka in 1978 should be retained, reformed or abolished is not a new one. It is a topic which is central to constitutional reformation in Sri Lanka, but one which always carries the potential of either making or breaking any attempt made at reforming the Constitution. This article examines the character of the post of executive president in Sri Lanka and how the most recent constitutional reforms process (initiated in 2015–2016) has sought to engage with the topic of executive presidency. Departing from the more popular trend of unconditionally critiquing the executive presidency, this article calls for a more realistic and dispassionate assessment of not only the possibility of abolishing the executive presidency but also of the viability of a prime ministerial system in Sri Lanka.     

印度洋海啸后的斯里兰卡政局

印度洋海啸发生后,灾后救援成了斯里兰卡各派政治力量面临的最紧迫任务,政府和猛虎组织都表达了搁置矛盾,携手做好救灾工作的愿望.这使人们产生了一种错觉,似乎海啸给斯里兰卡带来了难得的和平机遇.事实证明,这种想法是不现实的.猛虎组织不仅不能在救灾工作中与政府真诚合作,而且提出了建立联合救灾机制的要求,以控制国际社会提供的救援基金.     

Federal or Unitary? The Power-sharing Debate in Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT

Sri Lanka’s power-sharing debate is focused on the labels ‘federal and ‘unitary’. A recent Judgment of the Supreme Court recognising the fluidity of these terms, and a creative reform proposal defining Sri Lanka as a ‘aekiya rajyaya/orumitha nadu’, present opportunities for consensus. Yet there are also powerful obstacles, including the virtual collapse of Sri Lanka’s coalition government and exclusivist nationalist ideologies. Regardless of the outcome of this round of reform, however, reformers must focus on the political if Sri Lanka is to ever reach a just and equitable solution to the ethnic conflict.