Majorly, the British rule in 1315 characterized the history of Sri Lanka, The country attained independence in 1948 following the influx of the British by 1796. Moreover, the Portuguese were the first European to visit Sri Lanka. Based on the widespread scramble for Sri Lanka by British nations, The Ceylon National Congress was founded to fight for freedom, which would later lead to independence. In the 5‘“ century, the Iltdo-Aryan emigration from India emerged to constitute the majority of the ethnic group in Sri Linka called Sinhalese. Moreover, Tamils, which is the second largest group originated from the Tamil region in India and then migrated between the AD. 1200 and 3’“ Century BC. Before die colonial powers took control of the Ceylon, which was the name of Sri Lanka until 1972, the Tamil and the Sinhalese nilers struggled for power over the island.
Further, the Tamils, majorly Hindus, claimed part of the north while the Sinhalese controlled the southern part. The country practices many religions. According to 2011 statistics, 701% were Buddhists, 7.4% are Christians, 9.7% were Muslims, and 6.1% were Roman Catholic. Current Government Type Sri Lanka is one of the democratic republics with the executive presidency based on French model. The 1978 constitution dictates that the head of state is the President. Additionally, there is general adult suffrage characterized by proportional representation. On the other hand, presidential and parliamentary elections are carried out every six years. Moreover, the parliament has one chamber w1d1 roughly 225 members. These members are elected directly, but the vacant seats that occur during the Parliament life remain to nominees of a particular party holding the seat.
Notably, the president appoints the ministers and cltairs the cabinet. The Eighteenth Amendment, which was enacted in September 2010, eradicated the limitations of the number of terms mat a president may serve. Politics Sri Lanka went through violent elections in October 2000 where almost 70 civilians lost their lives. The ruling party by then. led by People’s Alliance candidate President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumoratunga became victorious by garnering 107 out of the 225 parliamentary seats. Moreover, the United National Party (UNP) had 89. Furthermore, Sirimavo Bandaranaike was appointed once again as the Prime Minister of the nation. Nearly two years to the end of his term, Rajapaksa held a presidential election in January 2010.
He faced the former head of Army General Sarath Fonseka who took the country to war against L’ITE and won in May 2009. With a 75% voter results, Rajapaksa returned to office while Fonseka got 40.2% of the votes. However, Fonseka contested the results in court. At the outcome of the Commonwealth report released by the Commonwealth expert present during the elections, Secretary-General Kamalesh Sharma reiterated that the elections were not democratic. The New Democratic Front Candidate called Maithripala Sirisena defeated the incumbent President Rajapaksa by gathering 51.3% in the presidential elections on 8 January 2015. The Commonwealth observers concluded that the election reflected the people’s will. Allies and Enemies Furthermore, Sri Lanka has enemies atld friends, which can be categorized into three dimensions. Tile nation has military friends, lip service allies, and enemies.
Arguably, lnilitary allies include India, China Pakistan. and Israel. Additionally, Russia and Ukraine provide Sri Linka with arsenals such as battle tanks, ammunition, arms fight the Tamil terrorists. 0n die other hand, the lip service allies are United States of America and United Kingdom who only offers verbal help to Sri Lanka regarding defeat against terrorism. These two nations do not support the antiterrorism efforts established by Sri Lanka. In fact, they ask Sri Lanka to make peace with terrorists while they tight terrorism with all means in tlleirjurisdictions. Overall, the Armchair peace activists are Lhe enemies of Sri Lanka because they shout against the government for dealing with terrorism in ways that abuse die human rights.
