The UNP's inability to mourn led to its rejection

Previous Parts: Part One - Part Two

By Our Political Editor

(April 23, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) Political apathy is often the result of the inability to deal with a past. When wrongs done in the past are not dealt with, it leads to political apathy although that apathy may be ascribed by others to other factors. The psychological developments which are the result of political changes or other factors often go unnoticed.

Very often the deeper problems are attributed to more trivial causes such as the ineffectiveness of personalities or a particular episode or a false or incorrect statement made by some person. However, larger political issues are not decided on the basis of trivialities. The deeper psychological changes that take place in the population also affect the political parties and their leaders. This is demonstrated today in the changes that are taking place in the political landscape in Sri Lanka.

The low turnout of voters in the last election was one such reflection. However, a far more illustrative incidence of this behaviour is the long term reactions that people have developed against the United National Party. This party, which in 1978 won the largest majority ever in Sri Lankan political history, has today been blatantly and openly rejected. What caused this to happen?

Many attribute this rejection to its leadership. However, the leadership of any party is the result of political changes that take place in the consciousness of the people of the country.

The incapacity to mourn in individual instances leads to various kinds of psychological paralysis among individuals. Various losses which are not deeply mourned by the individuals involved affect their inner being. An unusual event in the family, a suicide or any other event that traumatises the life of a person can affect the inner consciousness creating different reactions and changing his or her behaviour.

In the population in Germany the type of situation which arose after the overthrow of Fascism and the Second World War was reflected in a book by a great psychologist , The Inability to Mourn by a great psychologist , Alexander and Margaret Mitscherlich in their book, which at one time became household reading in Germany, described this phenomenon of political apathy as a result of the inability to mourn.

"The country seems to have exhausted its capacity to produce politically effective ideas,...."

The United National Party has a terrible past. A terrible past in terms of horrendous political violence which includes the causing of forced disappearances, politically provoking riots as they did in 1983 and the manipulation of the security apparatus in order to transform conflicts which could have been peacefully dealt with by wiser political leadership is part of the history of the UNP. The entire period was one based on the manipulation of the national security laws by way of anti terrorism laws and emergency regulations. The destruction of trade unions, political parties and media freedoms was all part of their agenda and strategy. Above all a period of cheating, corruption and arbitrariness was all part of the political legacy bequeathed to the nation by this political party. The litany of the terrible deeds of the United National Party is a long one. As the party's past is known to the people it need not be repeated here.

These terrible deeds had an impact, not only in the population at large but also on the supporters of the UNP. In the deeper consciousness of these long terms loyal members of the party there are problems of conscience and deep moral problems. These problems create the type of skepticism, doubt and apathy that accompanies the psychological transformations of similar kinds. Such things are not purely a Sri Lankan phenomenon but have happened over and over again throughout the world. Many political parties have been destroyed by the one-time loyalists of the parties themselves. The bitterness that grows in the minds of people and party members is reflected in their political behaviour. Letting alone the change in the minds of the nation at large the United National Party is unable even to change the minds of one-time loyalists because they failed to admit their wrongs in a genuine and honest manner.

Political leaders may want to believe that the people have no conscience. The fact is that the people do have a conscience and their memory. It is the result of that memory that remains the greatest barrier to the United National Party.

The same could be said of those who are benefiting today from that political apathy. The present regime manipulates that apathy to their advantage. However, in the people's conscience and memory the regime has created similar reactions as those of the United National Party. One day, these things will also come back to haunt them.

Today it is the UNP that faces the problem. Can they deal with that problem? This is a difficult question to answer and it is only the emergence of political imagination within those ranks themselves and those who are suffering the agony of bad conscience, that the capacity to mourn can grow. Either this party must mourn and thereby be reborn or its fate will be sealed.