Belgium and Sri Lanka
1. Belgium (Continent of Europe)
- Capital - Brussels
1. There are three communities in Belgium
1. Flemish – Dutch language
2. Waylon – French language
3. German - German language
- Belgium is a small country in the continent of Europe; it is smaller in area than our state Haryana.
- Belgium borders with France, the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg.
- Its population is a little more than one crore, almost half the population of our Haryana.
2. Belgian society
- Belgium is a small country but the ethnic structure of its society is very complex.
- 59% of the total population of Belgium lives in the Flemish region and speaks the Dutch language.
- The remaining 40% live in the Wallonia region and speak French.
- The remaining 1% speak German.
- 80% of the people in the capital Brussels speak French and 20% speak Dutch
3. Trouble in Belgium
- The French-speaking minority is comparatively more prosperous and powerful.
- The Dutch-speaking people, who benefited from economic development and education much later, were resentful of this situation.
- Tensions between the French and Dutch-speaking groups began to grow in the 1950s and 1960s.
- The most acute form of the conflict between these two communities was seen in Brussels. This was a special kind of problem.
- The Dutch-speaking people were relatively numerous in number but were poor in wealth and prosperity.
2. Sri Lanka
1. Location of Sri Lanka
- Sri Lanka is an island country located a few kilometers off the southern coast of Tamil Nadu.
- Its population is approximately two crore i.e. equal to Haryana.
- Like other countries in South Asia, Sri Lanka's population consists of people from many ethnic groups.
- The most prominent social group is the Sinhalese
- Whose population is 74 percent of the total population. Then comes the Tamils
- Whose population is 18 percent of the total population.
- Tamil people Tamils of Sri Lankan origin 13%
- The Hindustani Tamils are descendants of people brought from India to work on plantations during colonial rule.
2. Majoritarianism in Sri Lanka
- Sri Lanka became an independent nation in 1948.
- The old name of Sri Lanka was Ceylon
- The leaders of the Sinhalese community wanted to dominate the government on the basis of their majority.
- Because of this, the democratically elected government took several steps as part of its majoritarianism to establish the dominance of the Sinhalese community.
- In 1956, a law was enacted that declared Sinhalese as the sole official language, displacing Tamil .
- A policy of giving preference to Sinhalese in universities and government jobs was also implemented.
- The new constitution also provided that the government would protect and promote Buddhism.
- These government decisions, one by one, increased the anger of the Sri Lankan Tamils and their feeling of alienation towards the government.
- He felt that all political parties led by Buddhist Sinhalese were insensitive to their language and culture.
- He felt that the constitution and government policies
- depriving them of equal political rights.
- They are being discriminated against in jobs and other benefits
- Their interests are being ignored.
- The result was that relations between the Tamil and Sinhalese communities deteriorated.
3. Problem in Sri Lanka
- Sri Lankan Tamils formed their own political parties and fought to make Tamil the official language, achieve regional autonomy, and demand equal opportunities in education and employment.
- But their demands for autonomy for the Tamil-populated areas were consistently rejected.
- By the 1980s, several political organisations had emerged in north-eastern Sri Lanka demanding an independent Tamil Eelam (government) .
- In Sri Lanka, mutual distrust between the two communities took the form of a major conflict. This conflict turned into a civil war.
- The result was that thousands of people from both sides were killed and many families fled their country and became refugees.
- The livelihood of many times more people has been ruined than this.
- The civil war there has caused many problems in social, cultural and economic life.
- This civil war ended in 2009.
Belgian Got Talent
- Belgian leaders decided to take a different path from Sri Lanka.
- He acknowledged regional differences and cultural diversity.
- Between 1970 and 1993 they made four amendments to their constitution just to
- No person living in the country should feel alienated and everyone should be able to live together in harmony.
- The arrangement they made for this is very imaginative and no other country has been able to do this.
1. Some key points of the Belgian model
- There is a clear provision in the Constitution that the number of Dutch and French speaking ministers in the central government will be equal.
- Some special laws can be made only when the majority of MPs from both linguistic groups are in its favour.
- In this way, people of one community cannot take a unilateral decision.
2. Sharing of powers
- Many powers of the central government have been handed over to the regional governments of two areas of the country, that is, the state governments are not under the central government.
- There is a separate government in Brussels and both communities have equal representation in it.
- The French-speaking people accepted this offer of equal representation in Brussels as the Dutch-speaking people had accepted equal representation in the central government.
- Apart from the central and state governments, a third level of government also works here i.e. community government.
- This government is elected by people who speak the same language.
- People from the Dutch, French and German-speaking communities elect this community government, regardless of where they live.
- This government has the right to take decisions on issues like culture, education and language.
Current situation in Belgium
- The Belgian model may seem a bit complicated. In fact, it is very complicated—even for Belgians themselves.
- But this system has been very successful, it has put an end to the fears of civil war in the country, otherwise in case of a civil war, Belgium would have been divided into two parts on the basis of language.
- When many European countries decided to come together and form the European Union, Brussels was chosen as its headquarters.
Comparison of power sharing in Belgium and Sri Lanka
- What do we learn from these stories of Belgium and Sri Lanka?
- Both countries are democratic. Yet they tried to solve the question of power sharing in different ways.
- The Belgian leaders felt that unity of the country was possible only by respecting the sentiments of different communities and regions.
- Due to this realization both the parties agreed to share power.
- In Sri Lanka, the exact opposite path was adopted. This shows that if the majority community decides to dominate others and not allow them to share power , then the unity of the country can be in danger.
Why is power sharing important?
Two types of arguments can be given in favor of division of power.
First
- Division of power is good because it reduces the possibility of conflict between different social groups as social conflict often escalates into violence and political instability, hence sharing of power is good for the stability of the political system.
- Imposing the will of the majority community on everyone else may seem beneficial in the short term but in the long run it can be disastrous for the integrity of the country . The tyranny of the majority does not only create problems for the minorities but it is often harmful for the majority as well.
- Imposing the will of the majority community on everyone else may seem beneficial in the short term, but in the long run it can prove fatal for the integrity of the country .
- Majority tyranny not only creates problems for the minorities , it is often harmful for the majority as well.
Second
- Power sharing is good for democratic systems . Power sharing is the soul of democracy.
- Democracy means that power should be distributed among the people who are part of this system of governance, therefore, a legitimate government is one in which all groups are connected to the governance system through their participation.
forms of power sharing
- Earlier it was believed that political power could not be divided .
- The idea of power sharing came up against this very notion.
- For a long time it was believed that all the powers of the government should remain in the hands of one person or a group of people living at a particular place.
- If the decision making power is fragmented then it will not be possible to take decisions and implement them immediately.
- But, a fundamental principle of democracy is that the people are the source of all political power.
- In this, people rule themselves through self-governance institutions.
- In a good democratic governance, due respect is given to different groups of the society and their views and everyone's views are included in deciding the public policies.
- Therefore, only that democratic governance is considered good in which maximum number of citizens are made stakeholders in political power.
There can be many forms of power sharing in modern democratic systems.
1. Horizontal distribution of power
- There is division of power among different organs of government, such as the legislature, the executive and the judiciary.
- We will call this the horizontal distribution of power because in this different organs of the government remain at the same level and use their respective powers.
- Such division ensures that no single organ can use power without limit. Each organ keeps a check on the other.
- There can be many forms of power sharing in modern democratic systems.
- This system is also called the 'system of checks and balances'.
2. Vertical distribution of power ( at different levels )
- There may also be division of power at different levels of government: for example, there may be a general government for the entire country and then separate governments at the provincial or territorial levels.
- Such a general government for the whole country is often called a union or central government.
- Provincial or regional level governments are called by different names everywhere. In India we call them state governments. The division is not the same in every country.
- Many countries do not have provincial or territorial governments.
- But in countries like ours, where such a system exists, it is clearly mentioned in the constitution as to how the power will be divided between the central and state governments.
- This work has been done in Belgium but not in Sri Lanka.
- Similar arrangements can be made for governments below the state governments.
- Municipalities and panchayats are such units.
- Such distribution of power between higher and lower levels of government is called vertical distribution.
3. Sharing of power to different social groups
- Power may also be divided among different social groups, linguistic and religious groups.
- The 'Community Government' in Belgium is a good example of this system.
- There is a provision in the constitution and law of some countries that socially weaker communities and women should be given participation in the legislature and administration.
- Such arrangements are made to give different social groups a share in the legislature and administration so that people do not start feeling separate from the government.
- Minority communities are also given their fair share in power in this manner.
4. Importance of pressure groups and movements
- One form of power sharing can also be seen in the way various pressure groups and movements influence and control governance.
- In a democracy, people must have the option of choosing among the contenders for power.
- In contemporary democratic systems this option is available in the form of various parties.
- Parties compete among themselves for power. This rivalry among parties ensures that power does not remain in the hands of one person or group.
- Power keeps changing hands alternately between parties with different ideologies and social groups.
- Sometimes this sharing of power is quite visible as two or more parties contest elections together or form a government.
- In democracy we also see many organised interest groups like businessmen, industrialists, farmers and industrial workers active.
- By directly participating in various government committees or by pressuring policies for the benefit of their members
- These groups also participate in power.
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