A peace activist has said that collapse and normalcy coexist in Sri Lanka and this provides us with an occasion to reflect on what is considered normal by people who have suffered catastrophes and live under conditions, which might amount to societal collapse. At the initial stage of a crisis that has begun to change their way of life, people may consider that something abnormal is beginning to take shape. However, when the crisis is more wide spread and there is less likelihood that things can be changed for the better, people also begin to treat such a situation as ‘normal’.
Perhaps one illustration from Asia is what happened to Cambodia. The period from the late sixties to the end seventies was one of catastrophe for the Cambodian people. The Vietnam War spilled over the country and was subjected to heavy bombing by the Americans. There was also the ousting of Prince Sihanouk from power by a military coup, which had enormous psychological impact in a country that believed in god-kings.
From 1975 to 1979, the Khmer Rouge held power. Their ideological lunacies and total incapacity to run the state lead to a complete collapse and this included the economy. A seventh of the population died in the turmoil and state institutions collapsed. After 1979, there was a slow recovery, evident in the reconstruction of paddy fields, waterways, and basic roads, which is considered normal now. However, this normalcy is nothing compared to what the country was in the fifties when its currency was stronger, even against the Thai Baht. There was a stable government, an improving educational and health system and the beginning of a democracy, though with many limitations. Today the country is extremely poor; the Cambodian Riel is among the world’s most inflated currencies. Educational and health systems are among the worst in the region and an authoritarian style of rule, backed by the military, is imposed on the people with serious consequences for serious critics of the system.
Another close example to Sri Lanka is the India state of Bihar. It is today one of the most lawless places where corruption is a way of life. The idea of crime does not make much sense since investigations into crime and prosecuting offenders is not within the capacity of the state. Recently some pictures appeared in which children were holding placards calling for ‘kidnapper uncles’ not to kidnap them. Another recent picture showed a police Sub-Inspector in civilian clothes, sitting on a motor bike to which an alleged criminal was tied and dragged along the road. Bihar was at one time a prosperous and stable place. In history, it was one of the centers of culture and learning, a place of large universities and a flourishing culture. Despite the loss of even the semblance of the rule of law, the present way of life is considered normal.
This reminds me of the story of a client I once represented in High Court on murder charges when I was a defense lawyer. This man suffered from a serious psychological condition. However, when he was able to take his medication he could live normally. He was married to a beautiful young lady whom he loved very much and he worked as a printer in a government-printing department. One day he fell short of money to buy his medication; he took a big rod, traditionally used for pounding rice and chilies and hit his wife, killing her instantly. He sat there with the rod until the police came and took him to a magistrate who ordered him to police custody. After a few days in prison when his family provided him with his medication, he was normal again.
A cousin of his recalls the first question he asked her in prison, “where is Rangeni (his wife)?” When told that she had died, he yelled in a manner that was so sad that she had not heard the kind of wailing before. In court, I had to make a submission for mitigation of sentence on his behalf. He was standing behind me as I made that submission. I explained his mental condition based on medical reports and the research I had done on his condition. A sympathetic judge gave him a suspended prison sentence. That evening he came to see me with his mother. He told me “Sir, until you made that speech in court I did not know how bad my condition was.” Perhaps everybody in court had pardoned him when the testimony of his pain caused by his abnormal condition was told, which incidentally had been a ‘normal life’ to him without too many disturbances. People go through similar situations when faced with societal crises and catastrophes. However, not being able to reckon the actual situation prevents the possibility of seriously fighting for recovery.
In a book entitled, The Inability to Mourn – Principles of Collective Behaviour, two German authors Alexander and Margarete Mitsherlich, write about the psychological condition of the Germans in post World War II who are unable to come to terms with the intensity of their love for their lost leader. They are also unable to come to terms with what their husbands or children did as soldiers in the war. This of course would have included the inability to cope with the holocaust. However, the inability to deal with these societal problems made them incapable of understanding their own selves and therefore, made it difficult to deal with the issue.
The claims of normalcy in contemporary Sri Lanka are linked to the incapacity of the educated sections of society in particular to accept the reality of a failed state. They need to assert that everything is normal except for a few small problems. A one-man commissioner, expected to deal with disappearances, abductions, and unidentified dead bodies, went on record to state that such things are normal in a situation of an undeclared war.
The claim of normalcy coexisting with collapse expresses a similar state of mind. Such states of mind reflect the helplessness of people, who see no alternative to what they are experiencing. Any attempt to deal with such a situation requires attempts to help the people deal with this mindset and find ways out of it. The existing model of peace activism in Sri Lanka does not attempt to address this aspect of the problems in the country.
Source: Nothing is normal in Sri Lanka anymore
Filed under: Sri Lanka, crime, rule of law
