Power Sharing, Economic Development and National Security- Sri Lanka' s Crisis of Executive Convenience

Abstract

'Stability' through national security and economic development is arguably a dominant model for governance in the contemporary world order. In transitional societies such as Sri Lanka the claims made on the basis of 'power-sharing' and 'internal self-determination' are often understood as seeking to undermine this dominant model and its many uses. Those who advocate this dominant model rest their case on several misguided arguments which rest on a rather narrow understanding of the question of stability in transitional societies. In brief they show a particularly hostile attitude towards political accommodation at a transitional stage claiming them to be an unwarranted distraction and a costly exercise which should not be the key focus. Further they argue that it undermines the need for a strong centre representing strong decision making ability and that it increases the dangers of secession. In Sri Lanka this was essentially the case in the period after independence. Successive governments were obsessed with the idea of stability through economic development that, for half a century they turned a blind eye to the real claims of the politically isolated communities which resulted in a thirty -year internal strife. The author seeks to assess through qualitative data analysis the accuracy and the validity of the key arguments posed in support of stability through development and national security as a dominant model of governance in light of the Sri Lankan political experience after independence and similar events in jurisdictions elsewhere. The author attempts to argue based on secondary data that that objectives of political accommodation of claims relating to self-determination and the like and that of development and ensuring national security in transitional societies are not necessarily at variance in order to propose an alternative model for Sri Lanka based on the celebrated principles of good and responsible governance.