Explain in detail how belgium and …

*Sri Lanka is a neighbouring country of India in Asia . Belgium is a small country in Europe. * The population of Sri Lanka consist 74% of Sinhalese and 18% of Tamils .The ethnic composition of Belgium is 59% Dutch and 40% French and 1% German. *The majority community ruled over Sri Lanka in it's own way by disregarding Tamil . In Belgium there is an arrangement of power between Dutch French and German.

Belgium is a small country in Western Europe with complex ethnic composition. Of the country's total population, 59 percent speak Dutch language, 40 percent speak French and 1 percent speak German. Inspite of these diversities, the leaders of Belgium decided to make an arrangement for power sharing. Between 1970 and 1993, they amended their Constitution four times. The Constitution provides that the number of Dutch and French speaking ministers shall be equal in the Central Government and the State Governments. The State Governments are not subordinate to the Central Government. Contrary to it, leaders of the Sinhala community in Sri Lanka sought to secure dominance over government by virtue of their majority and refused to share power with the Tamils. The democratically elected government adopting majoritarian measures declared 'Sinhala' as the only official language and 'Buddhism' as state religion.

Accommodation in Belgium

In Belgium, the government handled the community difference very well. Between 1970 and 1993, Belgian leaders amended their constitution four times and came up with a new model to run the government.

Here are some of the elements of the Belgian model.

1. The Constitution prescribes that the number of Dutch and French-speaking ministers shall be equal in the Central Government. Some special laws require the support of the majority of members from each linguistic group. Thus, no single community can make decisions unilaterally.
2. The state governments are not subordinate to the Central Government.
3. Brussels has a separate government in which both communities have equal representation.
4. Apart from the Central and the State Government, there is a third kind of government. This ‘community government’ is elected by people belonging to one language community – Dutch, French and German-speaking – no matter where they live. This government has the power regarding cultural, educational and language-related issues.

 

Majoritarianism in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka emerged as an independent country in 1948. The Sinhala community was in the majority so they had formed the government. They also followed preferential policies that favoured Sinhala applicants for university positions and government jobs. These measures taken by the government gradually increased the feeling of alienation among the Sri Lankan Tamils. Sri Lankan Tamils felt that constitution and government policies denied them equal political rights, discriminated against them in getting jobs and other opportunities and ignored their interests. Due to this, the relationship between the Sinhala and Tamil communities become poor. Sri Lankan Tamils launched parties and struggles for the recognition of Tamil as an official language, for regional autonomy and equality of opportunity in securing education and jobs. But their demand was repeatedly denied by the government. The distrust between the two communities turned into widespread conflict and turned into a CIVIL WAR. As a result, thousands of people of both the communities have been killed. Many families were forced to leave the country as refugees and many more lost their livelihoods. The civil war ended in 2009 and caused a terrible setback to the social, cultural and economic life of the country