Sri Lanka's new president has appointed Dr Harini Amarasuriya, a parliamentarian with his National People’s Power (NPP) coalition, as the new prime minister.

Anura Dissanayake’s appointment of Amarasuriya, comes amidst reports that Sri Lanka’s parliament will shortly be dissolved.

We look back on Amarasuriya’s previous remarks on Eelam Tamils, racism in Sri Lanka and on devolution of powers through the 13^th Amendment.

Black July

^{Sinhala rioters celebrate as they pause in the destruction of homes and businesses in Tamil sectors of Colombo}

In a 2020 interview with Women For Politics, Amarasuriya recalled the 1983 Black July pogrom, when government-backed Sinhala mobs killed thousands of Tamils.

She was asked:

What was growing up like amidst the conflict in Sri Lanka? Especially for women to have lived through a difficult period such as this?

I have particular memories of living through the conflict. Like, the ethnic riots in 1983. I lived in an area with a lot of Tamil neighbours. I was 13 years old and I remember feeling really confused and scared.

You know something is really wrong because some of your neighbours have disappeared suddenly. School had changed drastically as a lot of our Tamil friends were no longer in school. A lot of our teachers had left. I remember my father used to step out to check the roads in the morning before we started school.

But, I had the privilege of being from a majority community and I lived in the south.

I also came from a family that was very politically conservative. I remember having arguments with my father about things that were going on and decisions that have been made by the government in responding to the insurrection in the south and the issues in the north and east.

It's something that really shapes the way you see the world growing when you grow up with that kind of culture around you.

On Tamil women

Speaking to The Federal earlier this year, Amarasuriya was asked:

You have written and spoken decisively about women and children being the worst victims of the long civil war in Sri Lanka. How would you bring their voices to the truth and reconciliation process in a post-civil war era?

The women in this country, particularly those affected by the civil war, have repeatedly expressed what they want. Numerous commissions have sought the views of women victims regarding the reconciliation process, compensation, and grievance mechanisms they want. It is time for the government to take action on these issues. Women have been demanding these changes for years. They are seeking the truth about what happened to their family members. This must be taken seriously. The people need to know what happened to the members of their families who were handed over to security forces and to those who disappeared. Some form of answers is necessary.

A truth-seeking mechanism is crucial for people to come to terms with what happened, allowing them to mourn their losses, and grieve. All of this must be recognised and respected. Moving forward, we need a process that provides a sense of justice. This could include methods similar to those used in South Africa, where forgiveness-seeking mechanisms were explored. However, most of all, people need to be acknowledged that this happened and they must be allowed to grieve.

Currently, even acts of remembrance are seen as crimes, which is unacceptable. The process of healing needs to begin.

To note, Tamils across the North-East, including the women who make up families of the disappeared have repeatedly rejected any domestic truth seeking mechanism and repeatedly demanded international accountability through the International Criminal Court (ICC).

^{Tamil families of the disappeared protesting and demanding Sri Lanka be referred to the International Criminal Court.}

In another 2020 interview, Amarasuriya said,

Women in the North and East as well as in the South organised themselves to protest against government atrocities and these were instrumental in mobilising resistance against the government at the time. Even today, women in the North of the country have not given up their fight asking questions about their loved ones who were disappeared during the final stages of the war between the military and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009.

On Sinhala racism

Writing in The Wire in May 2020, Amarasuriya said,

Post-independence Sri Lanka has been marked by the struggles between a majority community often described as a ‘majority with a minority complex’, and minority communities faced with reduced influence and marginalisation in the face of majority rule. This manifested in a 30-year war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), fighting for a separate homeland for the Tamil community, which was brought to a bloody end in 2009. But the military defeat of the LTTE has not eased ethno-religious tensions in Sri Lanka by any means.

It seems as if nurturing constant tension with an ethnic/religious ‘other’ is essential for doing politics in Sri Lanka. So, since 2009, there has been a rise in Islamophobia – one that is carefully nurtured, sustained and facilitated. It would not be an exaggeration to say that no event of ethnic or religious violence in Sri Lanka has taken place without the complicity of the political party in power – at the very least, by turning a blind eye or delaying taking action.

 Most calls for ‘unity’, a ‘Sri Lankan identity’, also reflect the majority preoccupation of ‘taming’ the minorities and bringing them under the benevolent control of the majority community. Many Sinhalese who would consider themselves cosmopolitan, democratic and tolerant, would not see the implicit exclusions and violence, in enforcing a totalising identity in a society such as Sri Lanka. COVID-19 and its impact on the Muslim community show the extent to which a majoritarian mindset that is comfortable with demonising minority communities – or any other community that is seen as a threat to the majority community – has become normalised in Sri Lankan society and polity.

On the 13^th Amendment and devolution of powers

Asked to explain the NPP stand on the implementation of the 13th Amendment earlier this year, Amarasuriya said:

“It has been presented as a solution to the national problem. It is already there in the Constitution and we believe that it should be implemented, but we have a debate whether it could be a tenable solution for the national problem. Our standpoint is that a government with genuine intention of addressing the issues of Tamil people must bring about solutions to the national problem, and we have no faith in other parties, but only the NPP could do that.”

She also stated,

“In terms of devolution, the NPP has had a robust discussion internally about resolving the national issue. We know a fair resolution is necessary. Currently the 13A is in the Constitution and the minority community expects its implementation. We intend to honour that. However, we also think that the 13A does not necessarily address and resolve the issues of minorities because those are more rooted in a kind of institutionalised racism which the State has to address in different ways.”

“The NPP would like greater democracy; we want people to be more involved in the decision-making process and we would like to see a stronger parliamentary process where there is greater public involvement. We also think that there needs to be a systematic solution to how democracy, which will lead to majoritarian rule, doesn’t lead to exclusion of minority communities – be it ethnic, religious, or any other.”

Despite Amarasuriya’s pledge, other senior officials within her party have openly spoken out against implementing the 13^th Amendment, which was established through the 1987 Indo-Lanka Accord. The JVP staged two insurrections against the state in the early 1970s and the late 1980s. The latter of these was chiefly in response to the Indo-Lanka accord and the 13th Amendment which sought to devolve powers to Tamils in the North-East. Tens of thousands were killed.

In 2010, Dissanayake himself said the JVP will oppose if a new political constitution devolving powers to the Northern and Eastern provinces was to be created.