As Sri Lankans headed to the polls on Thursday to make a crucial decision about cementing the 'new era of politics' ushered in by President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, his recent promises echoed through the island nation's northeastern provinces.
Addressing a gathering at the Tamil-dominated city of Jaffna in the northern province of Sri Lanka on November 6, President Dissanayake promised to correct two historical crimes committed against the Tamil and Muslim populations of the country. Dissanayake vowed to gradually return the land grabbed from the communities and occupied by the state agencies since the brutal suppression of the decades-long Tamil insurgency by the Sri Lankan military in 2009.
He also announced that the elections to the country’s provincial councils and local bodies will be held soon but did not comment on the long-standing demand of the Tamils for a political solution.
Though promises had been made before, Dissanayake's statement becomes significant when viewed in the light of the hope he holds as the flag bearer of a new political culture in the island nation, of which he invited the Tamils to be a part.
What would Dissanayake's promise mean for the Tamils who have been protesting the land grabs among other things for decades? Will it stop at being just an election gimmick or will the Marxist walk the talk?
The problem of land grabbing in Sri Lanka has a long and complicated history. It was a systematic measure adopted by the Lankan government to decentralise and ethnically cleanse the Tamil and Muslim populations from the northern and eastern regions. For this, several projects were introduced by the government, under the guise of agriculture, irrigation and other schemes.
Several such schemes also required Sinhalese peasants to relocate to lands belonging to the Tamil and Muslim communities, a process known as 'Sinhalization,' which led to irrevocable changes in the local demographics and was a key factor that escalated contention and violence during the civil war fought between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan military from 1983 to 2009.
Since the war ended in 2009, land grabbing among other human rights abuses and discriminative measures intensified.
The Demographic Shift and Its Complex Resolution
For decades, local Tamil communities have protested the rapid demographic changes resulting from the illegal settlement of Sinhalese people on their land. Thousands of acres have been occupied by state agencies, with much of the land being converted into Sinhalese settlements and government-controlled areas under various schemes and projects. Dissanayake has promised the "gradual" return of these lands to their "rightful" owners. However, even if his intentions are genuine, there are several challenges he may face in this process:
According to California-based think tank 'The Oakland Institute', the land grabs strategically targetted the most densely Tamil and Muslim populated areas "to erase their history and culture while destroying their claim to a unified homeland."
The occupation of land belonging to Tamil and Muslim communities happened through various government agencies, including the Military, Archaeology Department, Forest Department, and Tourism Development Authority.
Thousands of acres of land, once belonging to the Tamil and Muslim communities is now under the control of the Lankan government, depriving these communities of their rights and pushing them into an endless loop of enduring injustice upon injustice.
Responding to continuous protests from the community, attempts to return some of the lands have been made before.
Former President Wickremesinghe had in 2023, ahead of the 75th National Independence Day, announced the release of 100 acres of land occupied by the state agencies in the northern province.
But these attempts did not persist considering several challenges including the high militarisation of the northern and eastern provinces, the hardcore Sinhalese nationality that is engraved in the politics of Sri Lanka and the ethnic divide that makes it difficult for politicians to work in favour of the Tamils.
The heavy military presence in these regions has enabled land grabs to establish Buddhist viharas and bring in Sinhalese settlers. According to a report by the 'Oakland Institute', these provinces house five of the seven Regional Headquarters of the Sri Lankan military.
"Most of the land is under the control of the army, and they are called high-security zones. Out of the around 1,75,000 soldiers in the Sri Lankan military, nearly 1,50,000 of them are concentrated in the north. It is a completely militarised zone. Even if the politicians want, the military will not give up the control of the land," explained Dr Paul Newman, associate professor of History at St Joseph's University and an expert in Sri Lankan politics.
How will Dissanayake tackle these, considering his own background as a vocal supporter of Sinhalisation?
According to Paul, who terms Dissanayake's recent statements as "an election gimmick," his stances in the past doesn't go well with his newly found commitment towards the Tamils.
During the presidential election campaigns, "Dissanayake had made it very clear that he doesn't depend on Tamil votes and that the Tamils should become a part of the mainstream and cannot have a separate identity, it applies to the Muslims also," Paul pointed out.
"He is a staunch supporter of the 'one nation, one language theory' which is not acceptable for Tamils," he explained.
Even if Dissanayake decides to take along the Tamil and Muslim communities in his stride towards a new era of politics, Paul claims that "his survival in the south will become difficult."
"Other political parties will take this up as an election issue and he will be removed from power," Paul said.
Paul pointed out that Dissanayake is not the first president who attempted to address the issues pertaining to the Tamils.
"Right from the very first treaty, the Bandaranaike–Chelvanayakam Pact in 1957, none of the treaties which sought to bring a solution to the issue of the Tamils have been honoured by any of the Singhala regimes. Because if they do that they will not survive," Paul said.
"They cannot displease the Sinhalese, especially the hardcore Sinhala nationalists," he added.
While, a senior Indian journalist Sundaresha Subramanian, who closely follow Sri Lankan politics, thinks it is too quick to come to a conclusion.
"With the parliament elections happening, we need to see how his statements reflect in the ballot in both Sinhalese pockets and Tamil, Muslim and other minority-dominated areas," he said.
"He is just starting his tenure and people should be rather hopeful rather than be sceptical at this stage. We need to see how this progresses and what actual steps are taken to return the land," he added.
Sri Lanka, after being through the worst, is now at the door of an inevitable political change. The vibe that was seen in the presidential elections and anticipated in the parliamentary elections is "we have seen it all, now let's test this." In its new era, if Sri Lanka will take along its minorities and correct some historical wrongs will determine the complete progress of the nation.