A.R.M. Imtiyaz : Muslim political elites in post-war Sri Lanka: Marginality and Plurality
In deeply divided ethnic societies where electoral politics play a significant role to determine political representations of each community, elites of minority ethnic groups seek different strategies to win and consolidate their share. In Sri Lanka, Muslims, who form their ethnic identity based on religion, claim they are distinct-distinct from Tamils. Their Southern political elites often embrace accommodative and non-confrontational politics, while the North and East leadership adopt more exclusive strategies. The choices made by both by the South and North and East Muslim leadership were cited as one of the major contributors for the current animosity with the Tamils whose leaders (after 1956) opted to non-accommodative politics. Sri Lanka has defeated the violent form of Tamil nationalism, led by the Liberation Tiger of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), in May 2009. Muslim masses were pleased with the defeat of the LTTE. But their leaders may confront new challenges and crisis (to bargain their share with the confident Sinhala polity). This study attempts to understand some of those challenges Muslim political elites would face in the post-war Sri Lanka. This paper also looks critically at the choices made by the Muslim leader before the defeat of the LTTEs, and it argues that the current crisis of the Muslims of the North and the East could have been prevented if the Muslim leaders had been more circumspect in making their political choices.
