Single Stories, Selective Amnesia, and a Stillbirth of Constitutional Reforms: A Story of Sri Lanka

Abstract

In this paper I argue that Sri Lanka has failed to reach a consensus concerning post-war constitutional reform. The main challenge is posed by the two main communities – the Sinhalese and the Tamils – being preoccupied with what I present as ‘single stories’. I invite the readers to see how such single-tracked metanarratives lead to ‘pathdependencies’ that hinder our ability to think anew of constitutional reform. Building on doctrinal foundations that explore the ‘rogue’ other, ethnic outbidding, tyrannies, and separatist ‘nationalism’, I present one story of how our fragmented constitutional consciousness defines the constitutional reform processes thereby forewarning its failure.