Govigama - Current Political Power

Current Political Power

The introduction of democracy in the early 20th century transferred political power to the affiliated Senanayake, Wijewardene, Kotelawala, Jayewardene and Dias Bandaranaike families in the Southern part of the country and to interconnected Vellala families in the North.

Since the grant of independence by the British in 1948, Sri Lanka’s political power has rarely slipped away from this closely connected group and even so only for short periods.

Despite their often Anglican Christian background, these families received support from the Sinhala Buddhist mass vote-base and the Tamil voters as their communal democratic leaders and representatives. However, it has always been the Catholic Church and not the Anglican denomination that has been at the receiving end of the religious antipathy of the Sinhala masses despite both Christian sects being chauvinistic and intolerant during the entire period of European colonization. Similarly the Sinhala Buddhists of Sri Lanka are the target of Tamil hostility for the atrocities perpetrated on them by this Anglican minority.

Although Sri Lanka is considered to be a democracy, the two main political parties have operated inefficiently throughout as family organizations. Key decisions within the parties are taken by an inner core and democratic processes do not exist within the two parties to elect its leaders. Voting by a show of hands is encouraged, secret ballots are shunned and dissidents within the two parties are regularly disciplined and victimised. For the most part, politics in post-independence Sri Lanka has been an alternating rule between the anglicized Colombo elite Senanyake-Wickremasinhe clan and the Bandarnaike-Ratwatte clan, all descendants of elite families created by the British in the 19th century. The Anglicized Tamil Vellalas are happy collaborators. Although not commonly known D. S. Senanayake’s sister Maria Frances was married to F.H.Dias Bandaranaike.

Non–Govigama representation in Parliament has steadily declined since independence and representation of non-Govigama castes are well below their population percentages. Caste representation in the Cabinet has always been limited to a few very visible, but unconcerned and disconnected members from a few leading castes. However none of these representatives are known to have ever spoken on behalf of their respective communities or done anything constructive for the progress of these communities.