by K.M. de Silva

Volume II: January 2016 | 171 + xv pp
Paperback| 978-955-580-173-7| Rs 500.00

The two volumes of this monograph examine some of the vitally important political issues that form an essential part of the background to a study of Sri Lankas recent prolonged ethnic conflict. These political issues have been neglected somewhat by those writing on this conflict, concentrating instead as they have on the island as a centre of little else but ethnic tensions. This monograph seeks to provide the beginning of a comprehensive political history and could be treated as the first volume of a study of Sri Lankas post-colonial history in a narrative form, and a corrective, to the work of many recent writers through the examination of political issues in the context of Sri Lankas recent prolonged episodes if not periods of conflict.

The Volume Two of this monograph briefly reviews the career of J.R. Jayewardene, the third of Sri Lankas most important post-colonial political figures; it also examines Sri Lankas triumph over the separatist and terrorist challenge posed by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE); and finally, if rather briefly, it deals with the resilience of the countrys electoral system, originally one of the best in Asia, and the prospects for a renewal of the countrys standing as one of Asias vibrant democracies, after the defeat of Rajapaksas authoritarian regime, the nearest Sri Lanka has had to a kleptocracy.

These volumes, essentially a political commentary, contain the authors personal views on issues and personalities in the life of Sri Lanka. Inevitably they contain material previously published by the author, material which could well be familiar to some readers.





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