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The Oldest English Newspaper in South Asia
Founded 4.2.1834
P. O. Box 1217,
35, D.R. Wijewardene Mawatha,
Colombo 10, Sri Lanka.
Telephone: Editor - 94-1-429226; Fax: 94-1-429230

Sinhala ultra-nationalism

A significant feature of the new Parliament is that the organised political voice of Sinhala ultra-nationalism, the Sihala Urumaya party (SU), is no longer represented in the national legislature.

No other party represented in Parliament today, other than perhaps the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna, advocates a policy of the exclusive national dominance of any single ethnic community or religion as does the Sihala Urumaya. However some parties, such as the United National Party as well as the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, do envisage the State maintaining some cultural or symbolic affinity to the majority ethnic culture while other parties represent the regional interests of minority ethnic communities.

The Marxist parties, such as the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and the Communist Party of Sri Lanka, advocate the avoidance of religion and ethnicity at State level. There are some who may exult in the exclusion of the SU from the national legislature as a welcome respite from what they see as a political pressure group that had been provided a platform far out of proportion to its actual political constituency. Others may be happy that a voice of extremism has been silenced.

Largely for market and audience interest reasons, the mass media, however, has played up Sinhala ultra-nationalism for nearly a century; most certainly since freedom from British rule. Whether or not the media gives it a voice, it is important that the country's political arena accommodates the Sinhala ultra-nationalist interest groups in some form. This is most necessary for the process of national negotiation of a comprehensive settlement of the ethnic conflict.

The Tamil movement for self-determination was driven to the extremes of secessionism and insurgency after it had been ignored in the national political arena and suppressed for decades. Excluded and ignored, the Sinhala ultra-nationalist movement has all the potential of being driven to similar violent extremes. There are enough examples in other countries.

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