Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the political dynamics surrounding state reform and development in the Eastern Province, a frontier region in Sri Lanka. We analyse the role performed by brokers in mediating coercive, political or economic resources, and trace their shifting relations with the state.

Paper long abstract:

Sri Lanka's contested post war transition has centred around the twin processes of state reform and reconstruction. In this paper, we analyse the political dynamics surrounding the Eastern Provincial Council and government-led reconstruction programmes in Sri Lanka's east. Rather than exploring how these efforts may have 'failed' to achieve the goal of conflict resolution, we examine how wider tensions between development, deconcentration and devolution in Sri Lanka have played out in this frontier region.

The paper demonstrates how development and decentralisation processes institutionalise sites of contestation, and create new spaces for the mobilisation of political support or the promotion and articulation of diverse political and economic agendas. We highlight the key role performed by brokers in mediating centre-periphery relations, focusing on how the fortunes of one important frontier broker - the former LTTE commander and later Chief Minister of the Eastern Province, Sivanesathurai Chandrakanthan or Pillayan - shifted in response to the wider oscillations of power that characterised the war to peace transition. The case study illustrates the need for studies of statebuilding and development to pay close attention to space and how power is territorialized. It also stresses the importance of carefully studying the role of individual brokers, their career paths and trajectories over time.