India, Sept. 29 -- The test now for Sri Lanka is whether political change can move beyond changing rulers. Uyangoda sees a struggle between an old ruling class and a new political force, almost "like a class war". A system designed to protect established power may resist transformation through the very institutions that give it legitimacy

Sri Lanka's most dangerous political question is no longer whether democracy should survive. It is whether democracy can survive being used to dismantle the political order that has lived comfortably inside it. Recently, I sat down with Professor Jayadeva Uyangoda and found myself returning to that question. He entered politics believing revolution could remake society, joined Rohana Wijeweera's undergr...