Strengthening District Administration In Plural Communal Context: An Analysis On The Potential Impact Of Establishing A Kalmunai Administrative District In Sri Lanka

DOI

10.2991/aapa-18.2018.7How to use a DOI?

Keywords

decentralized district administration, kalmunai administrative district, sri lanka, tamil-speaking minorities

Abstract

Decentralization promotes and strengthens the quality of local administration in plural communal context. However, decentralized district administration in post-independence Sri Lanka has been challenging, primarily due to a number of issues related to the accommodation of rights and interests of minorities. The persistent sidetracking of minorities’ concerns in district administration has pushed them to claim and advocate for separate decentralized institutional arrangements. One such issue is the call to form a separate administrative district (referred to as “Kalmunai administrative district”) in the coastal belt of the existing Amparai district. While exploring the factors that motivated the concept of a new administrative district, this study examined the potential impact of the formation of a Kalmunai administrative district. This research employed qualitative and quantitative data collected through different sources, which are presented through interpretive and descriptive arguments. The findings reveal that the conceptualization and advocacy of the Kalmunai administrative district are outcomes of several interconnected factors that undermined the rights and interests of ethnolinguistic minorities in decentralized district administration. These factors include the administrative domination of the ethnic majority, violation of the official language policy, and discrimination and marginalization of ethnic minorities in the district administration affairs. However, this study suggests that the establishment of the proposed administrative district would not only improve the quality of public service delivery and accommodate linguistic concerns of minorities in the district administration but would also enhance the socioeconomic development in the region, if the district administration is carefully organized and managed.

Copyright

© 2018, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

Download article (PDF)

TY  - CONF
AU  - Mohammad Agus Yusoff
AU  - Athambawa Sarjoon
PY  - 2018/03
DA  - 2018/03
TI  - Strengthening District Administration In Plural Communal Context: An Analysis On The Potential Impact Of Establishing A Kalmunai Administrative District In Sri Lanka
BT  - Proceedings of the 2018 Annual Conference of Asian Association for Public Administration: "Reinventing Public Administration in a Globalized World: A Non-Western Perspective" (AAPA 2018)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 60
EP  - 69
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/aapa-18.2018.7
DO  - 10.2991/aapa-18.2018.7
ID  - Yusoff2018/03
ER  -