ISAS Insights

The outcome of the latest elections to Sri Lanka’s Northern Provincial Council can indeed catalyse the search for an equitable political settlement of the troubled ethnic equations within the framework of a truly united country. For this to happen, the Sri Lankan leaders across the ethnic divide face the formidable task of harmonising President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s agenda of ‘political empowerment and reconciliation’ with the Tamil National Alliance’s focus on parity (as different from secession) .