The Marginalization of the minorities, with special focus on Malayaga (Hill
Country) Tamils.
-- B.A. Kader
As an activist- researcher I was forced by the political
circumstances of the country, Sri Lanka, to conduct number of researches on the
roots of ethnic conflict that led to the present bloodbath. In the course of my
study I came across constellation of writings on the discriminations imposed on
the Tamil speaking communities by the Sinhalese elites, which ranged from language
issue to the establishment of state sponsored colonies. Nevertheless, I was
surprised to note that one vital factor, which had played a crucial role in
marginalizing the political strength of the minority communities of Sri Lanka,
i.e. Gerrymandering had been untouched by many authors.
The practice of drawing electoral district boundaries with political
parties’ interest in mind is popularly known as ‘Gerrymandering’. There are two
strategies in gerrymandering for neutralizing the opponents’ potential vote:
mixing the spatial distribution of party support or forming party strongholds.
This manipulative tactics is named after American Governor Elbridge Gerry, who
cut out a safe salamander-shaped district for himself in the city of Boston.
The strategy is adopted in Sri Lanka not only to increase the representation of
the Sinhalese and to marginalize the representation of the other communities in
Sri Lanka by manipulating the
boundaries of the constituencies but also to weaken the demographic strength of
the minorities of Sri Lanka.
The geographical division of constituencies, districts and provinces
play a crucial role in any electoral and any political system. Sri Lanka is one
country, which has developed the gerrymandering tactics to its utmost level and
Mr. Gerry has many thing to learn from it. In Sri Lanka it is manoeuvred by two
devices: by artificially swelling or contracting the size of the
constituencies, districts and provinces and by carving out a part of a
stronghold of the opposition or minority community and annexing it with a
stronghold of the ruling party or Sinhalese majority area. There are no
scientific criteria stipulated for the delimitation of boundaries of the
electorates and administrative districts, provinces, etc. in Sri Lanka.
To show how artificially the delimitation of these boundaries have
been carried out with a view to give weightage to the political aspirations and
interests of the ruling party I wish to give an example, a story of one of my
friends. One of my wealthy friends named Jayam had a fairly large bungalow in
Udapussella area at the border of Nuwara Eliya District. When he bought the
bungalow he did not know that the rear toilet of the house was going to bring
him some problem in the future, as there was no electricity supply in that area
at that time. That poor man did not know that it was situated within the
Badulla district while rest of the house was stretched in the Nuwara Eliya
district. When that area was electrified by the government he made the blunder
of electrifying his house. Then only he realised that he had to travel 54 miles
to Badulla Kachchery in the East direction in order to get a separate
electricity line from Badulla District and to pay the bills for his toilet
while he had to travel another 21 miles in the North direction to Nuwara Eliya
Kachchery in order to electrify the rest of the portion of the house, which
was in the Nuwara Eliya district. It
has become the mother of all problems thereafter. The Badulla Kachchery having
come to know that his toilet was situated within its administrative purview it
started sending tax bills for the toilet. That poor man could not escape
travelling 54 miles anyway. But being a wise man he at last found a way out. He
solved the problem by demolishing the toilet in the Badulla district and
building a new one in the Nuwara Eliya District, which was a few inches away
from the Badulla District.
Now let me show how the Gerrymandering works in Sri Lanka. The
Gampaha district, the traditional stronghold of Bandaranaiyake Family, provides
a typical example. Under the existing electoral set-up of Local Authorities,
which was designed under the J.R.Jayewardene –UNP- regime, four out of five
largest Pradeshiya Sabahs (PS) (equivalent to Village Council) in Sri Lanka are
situated in this district. Each of these PS are created around Attanagala, the
SLFP fortress, by carving out a small portion the SLFP vote bank and annexing
it with the larger UNP stronghold in order to marginalize SLFP seats. The
defeat of the SLFP in the Gampaha district during the last Parliamentary
election, for the first time, could be partially attributed to this factor.
The same manipulative device is applied against minority communities
as well with a view to marginalize their representation. For example,
Ambagamuwa PS, which is situated in the Nuwara Eliya district where Malayaga
Tamils (Up-country Tamils) are the majority, is the only largest PS that has
over 80,000 voters outside the Gampaha District. If we list the most populated
PSs, excluding the Western Province, we get 17, and out of them 11 are situated
in areas where Malayaga Tamil people live in considerable number. In this
category the first and the second most populated PSs are the Ambagamuwa PS and
the Nuwara Eliya PS. Both are in the Nuwara Eliya District, the only Tamil
majority district outside the North and East.
However, it is wrong to conclude that discrimination against
opposing political forces and minority communities is exercised only by
swelling the size of the electorates. This objective is achieved by reducing
the size of the constituencies as well. The Eastern Province provides typical
example for this. Here, small PSs are artificially carved out to ensure the
representation of the Sinhalese settled under colonization schemes at the
expense of the other communities, which have the majority in the area. There
are six such small PSs in the Eastern Province as follows:
Six Smallest
Pradeshiya Sabhas in the Eastern Province
|
Name
District No.
of Rank Order
Of the PS Voters Among the smallest PSs
|
|
Lahugala Ampara 3,860 1
Somankadawala Trincomalee
4,076
2
Morawewa “ 5,777 4
Pthaviya Sri Pura “
7,023
6
Pathiyathalawa Ampara
7,178
8
Maha Oya
“ 8,046 10
|
Designing smaller constituencies to ensure weightage to Sinhalese
pockets is more pronounced at the Municiapal and Urban Council level. For
example, the Colombo MC, the largest in Sri Lanka, consists of 347,392 voters,
but the second smallest MC –Nuwara Eliya- has only 17,054 voters; the third
smallest MC –Matale- has 19,562 voters; the fourth smallest MC, Badulla has
19,562 voters. All three have been carved out in the plantation districts where
Malayaga Tamils live in concentration. In the delimitation of Urban Council
limits too this pattern is adopted. The smallest UC of the country, Haputale
UC, (in Badulla District) which has only 1,687 voters, is carved out from a
Malayaga Tamil majority area, giving weight to a Sinhalese pocket. The third
and the fourth places in the rank of the smallest UCs in the island goes to
Bandarawella UC (2,500 voters) and Talawakelle – Lindulla UC (3,467 voters)
respectively. It is also part of the manipulative device to seek advantage to
one community at the expense of the other. If these wards were expanded, in a
realistic manner, by a quarter mile further, the picture would be different.
For example, a part of Logie Estate has been brought into the Talawakelle-
Lindulla UC limits while its main parts is annexed to the Nuwara Eliya PS, as a
device to keep the number of Tamil voters below the number of Sinhalese voters
in the UC.
The same pattern could be observed in the administrative set up of
the island. Under the present administrative structure of Sri Lanka the
Divisional Secretariat area is considered to be the basic unit of
administration of the country. The following facts, based on my comparative
study of Nuwara Eliya District with other administrative districts, will show
the discriminative manner in which the Divisional Secretariats are formed,
using the Gerrymandering device:
- There are 23 DSs (outside the North
and East), which are lesser than 40 square kilometres in extent. The Bope
Poddala (in Galle), which is the smallest DS 35.6 Sq.Km in extent, has
35,635 population and the Malimboda (Matara), which is 38.5 Sq.Km in
extent has only 32,000 population whereas Nuwara Eiya DS, which is 481
Sq.Km in extent (13.5 times larger than the Bope Poddala) has a population
of 203.807 (eight fold).
- There are 11DS (outside the North
and East), which has lesser than 25,000 population, the smallest being the
Kataragama DS (12,866 population). In comparison the Nuwara Eliya DS has
16 times more population than what the former has.
- While the Anuradhapura District has
the maximum number of DSs (18), the N’Eliya District has the minimum
number of DSs (5) though it is almost equivalent to Kegalle and the Matara
districs, both in terms of land area and population density. Interstingly,
the Kegalle District has 10 DSs (two-fold the number of that of N’Eliya)
and the Matara District has 12 DSs!
- There are 11 most populated DS (outside
the North and East), which has a population over 150,000 as follows:
1)
Colombo DS = 685,196 7) Kaduwela DS = 170,631
2)
Dehiwala DS = 234,772 8) Homagama DS = 161,620
3) Nuwara Eliya DS =
203,807 9) Ja-Ela DS = 156,439
4) Ambagamuwa DS =
197,147 10) Gangawata Korela DS = 155,970
5)
Kesbewa DS = 190,679 11) Maharagma DS = 154,330
6)
Moratuwa DS = 175,000
- It is interesting to note that the
third and the fourth most populated DSs in Sri Lanka are the Nuwara Eliya
DS and the Ambagmuwa Korela of N’Eliya districts respectively.
- If we list the most populated DSs,
outside the Western Province and North and East, we get 17 DSs that has
over 100,000 population and 11 out of them are in areas where Malayaga
Tamils live in considerable number, the first and the second such DSs are
being Nuwara Eliya DS and the Ambagamuwa Korela DS, both are in the
N’Eliya District.
In drawing up provinces, districts
and electorates, their size, number, ethnic composition, etc. constitute the
most important component in determining the effects of a electoral and administrative
–therefore the political- system of the country. Any distortion in the component
will result in favour of certain political party and certain community.
Therefore, in finding a viable solution to the ethnic
conflict of Sri Lanka this aspect cannot be overlooked.
_______________________________________________________________
B.A.Kader was the
vice-president of the Ceylon Teachers' Union that represented the left minded
teachers of all three communities of Sri Lanka
and the founder secretary general of the Upcountry Peoples' Front. He is also the author of "Neo-slavery
in the twentieth Century", published in Tamil by EROS in 1984.
