Sri Lanka: Not Pakistan, Not Quite India

Vivek Oberoi giving a flower to a former LTTE soldier, Vavuniya

I’ve got an article on mylaw.net. comparing Sri Lanka to our neighbor India and their separation, Pakistan. I’ve often wondered how a possible Eelam would compare to Pakistan, and if a mono-ethnic state would have been as dysfunctional as a mono-religious one. So… this is extended wondering.

In 1947, India saw the bloody partition of its north as Pakistan along religious lines. Up to a million people died and Pakistan and India are continue a lukewarm war across Kashmir, erupting in periodic and horrific terrorist attacks.

By preventing the racially based separation of its north and east, Sri Lanka has, for the time, avoided this fate. Instead of a clean break after independence, Sri Lanka saw decades of conflict and 30 years of outright war. In the end, however, internal forces of Tamil separatism were crushed and a partition never occurred.

If history is any guide, this is a blessing.

Read the rest at mylaw.net (an Indian portal).

4 Comments

Eelam would probably have been worse than Pakistan, at least Jinnah started off with an inclusive, democratic vision that could not be sustained because institutions were lacking. Eelam would have had the same lack of institutions with the LTTE’s stupid ideology. This is all speculative, where SL is heading is the important question.

Sri Lanka as a whole is likely to end up like a cross between Pakistan and Bangladesh; the reason being the erosion of the institutions that are fundamental to guaranteeing a free society. The growing lawlessness is symptomatic of this. (the key institutions are an independent civil service, an independent judiciary, an independent press and the separation of power between the legislature and the executive)

If we look to our friends we will see whose company we keep. Iran, Pakistan, China, Burma and a few others, the direction we are heading is very clear.