Addressing trauma created by the Coup D’état |16 May 2017
Judging by the anger and anguish displayed by some of our fellow citizens who attended the National Assembly’s Truth and Reconciliation Symposium at ICCS on Sunday May 8 and those who attended the Seychelles Truth Reconciliation and Peace Platform (STRPP)’s conference at CEPS conference room in Orion Mall on Wednesday May 10, there is no doubt the trauma created by the Coup D’état is deep rooted in our society and we have to think carefully and put in place a programme that will deal with the situation and bring closure to those who have suffered in silence but only now can they vent their anger and explain their suffering.
There is an alternative to “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” but it has to be explained how it works in the first place to those who have harboured these emotions for 40 years or so.
People want to tell their stories and we must allow them to tell their stories either in private or on SBC television depending on their wish. This kind of approach will bring about a peaceful resolution and an acceptance that the wall between you and your opponent/s is “penetrable” if the approach can be so organised. We are not talking about rocket science and we have the expertise in Seychelles for us to put this matter to rest in the minds of our fellow citizens. We do not need someone from overseas to come and tell us how to achieve this resolution.
The first thing that must happen is for the politicians to accept that they cannot resolve this matter by themselves and that we need a whole structure driven by the people for the people for the process to be successful. This message came over loud and clear at both conferences. The Civil Society (the people), the National Assembly Committee, the Government, the Judiciary, the Religious fraternity must all work closely with each other to achieve a viable procedure to bring about a satisfactory conclusion to this very complex and sensitive issue. This is conflict resolution between the people and its government that goes beyond paying compensations to those who lost their land or property. People have lost their spirit, their faith in humanity, their trust in their Government and we cannot camouflage what happened. The atrocities were premeditated, planned and executed with military precision which makes it even more difficult to deal with in a small society where we are all closely related in some way or another. Had we been in a state of war at the time the post traumatic suffering would be lighter and it would perhaps be viewed in a different light thus creating a different reaction in the mind of the beholder as a consequence.
“How the human mind works under trauma”
Our web site explains “How the human mind works under trauma” and it shows how the mind can become extremely traumatised when it cannot work out why something happened or who did it and why do people commit such atrocities when we all share the same planet and there is room for all of us. These thoughts devastate the normal thinking process and the person feels like committing another crime to make good the crime that has been done to them, this is a normal reaction, however when the person becomes aware that there is no way to get back at the offender now the mind turns inward and starts to traumatise itself. The human mind can self-destruct which is what happens when someone commits suicide. Counselling and hypnosis help the mind to reconstruct its line of thoughts and reasoning returns. In most sufferers the same question keeps recurring and that is “why did it happen to me of all people?” We cannot under estimate the suffering that exists in Seychelles today because of the Coup D’état.
There is a vast difference between trauma and bereavement. Bereavement can be seen as inevitable if the circumstance is not due to malice or ill treatment. Trauma especially in the case of missing person the sufferer does not know whether the missing person is dead or alive but believes that one day the missing person will return or be found alive. Sometimes they even wish that he/she was dead so that the body would be found and a decent burial could take place. To this day we have not received a reasonable answer from our police force as to whom does the skull that was found at Bel Ombre belong to, can you believe this? If the victim was young when he/she disappeared the trauma is even greater because it carries with it several questions for example how old would he/she be this year and on the birthday of the missing person it has been known that the family bakes or buys a birthday cake with the year of the missing person boldly written on the cake so that they do not forget his/her age. Other questions that haunt the family is how tall or how fat he/she would be if he/she was alive today.
Some families carry out other rituals of remembrance for example they bring out the clothes of the missing person from the moth ball preserved cupboard and display in the room for the birthday celebration. Missing children have their toys brought out of a safe keeping suitcase and displayed in the room and it is believed that some people claim that as they enter the room they can smell the presence of the missing person. The person feels his/her mind is about to explode because the mind is so traumatised. Different people, different cultures behave differently but at the end of the day the trauma is the same. Some times the number of years the person has gone missing is misinterpreted by the mind and some people talk about it as though it was recently when it was, say for example, 40 years ago. Sometimes trauma removes any sense of rationale from prevailing when the condition is right. Some families have the grave ready for when the missing person’s body is found and on anniversaries of the missing date they visit the grave and put flowers on the grave as though the body has already been buried while at the same time they go home hoping the body will be found one day. The healing process for deep trauma can be arduous and long lasting. (There are many publications on the subject for the readers who are interested).
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is on the increase globally as people experience more global unrest than any time in our history, apart from the two World Wars. While writing this article 60 million people have been displaced by unrest in the Middle East and resulting hunger and they are making their way to richer countries in Europe. PTSD is caused by psychological trauma as a consequence of experiencing helplessness in situations of abuse, violence, and loss of a loved one, loss of property by natural causes or man-made. It is easier to deal with natural disasters than with man-made and committed atrocities.
Many people in Seychelles, where we credit ourselves with “living in paradise” or as recently claimed we live in a “high income country”, PTSD is suffered by many people as a result of the Coup D’état and the activities that followed. Even Seychellois who have been forced to leave Seychelles and emigrated to the UK, Canada, Australia and other parts of the world, suffer with PTSD because they were forced out of their country of birth to find shelter in another land with a different culture that does not belong to them. There are treatments available in Seychelles and the Platform will arrange for the sufferers to receive this type of treatment and other types of psychological based treatments.
Existential guilt and shame
Animals show guilt much better than humans because humans have learnt to hide guilt. Guilt which is sometimes referred to as shame is the realisation that one has done something that one is not prepared to share and talk about it at first but at the same time something inside one’s mind wants to do something to get rid of the guilty feeling that haunts one’s mind. In psychology and psychiatry guilt is the suffering and regret that whatever one has done is not acceptable by others and it bothers one’s conscience. The reason why someone did it is not as important as the urge to tell and get over it. The perpetrators of the Coup D’état feel guilty about the harm that they have done to others and they feel ashamed of their participation in the Coup D’état but they have no way to repent unless a way is opened for them. This is existential guilt meaning that it is there in one’s mind and one wishes there was a way one could confess it without causing too much damage to one’s well-being. The perpetrators may put on a false air of defiance claiming they are proud of what they did but this is a farce and a pretence, a self-protection mechanism due to permeating fear that the day of reckoning is fast approaching therefore if they show defiance it will ward off any likely punishments. They are only kidding themselves. Another scenario of existential guilt is the perpetrators start to wonder whether they did it voluntarily or someone made them do it or they had no choice but to commit the crime because they were following orders or instructions. If one is a soldier and one is in the middle of a battle field then a soldier either kills or gets killed and if the soldier find him/herself in this position then the soldier can justify his/her action as his/her defence because survival is a prime instinct in all humans and animals and under those conditions there is no choice but to kill and guilt is not felt.
In a civilised society, which is not at war, hurting someone or trying to kill someone is not excusable and one’s conscience knows this because mankind has evolved. If one is in the security services one’s primary role is to defend not to attack and in everyday life it is better to avoid a confrontation than to get involved in it because someone is going to get hurt and as sure as day is light and night is dark one is going to make sure it is not going to be oneself who is going to come off worse. People who suffer with guilt are more restrained and careful in their actions. They think twice before they do something because they are already carrying the burden of guilt and they don’t want to increase the burden. They are more likely to be very helpful and appear to be kind because they are already showing signs of remorse.
Sometimes guilt can cause someone to commit suicide because the mind is so disturbed that it will destroy itself. The irony is the mind lives in the brain and the brain is part of the body and yet when the mind goes into convulsion it will instruct the body to kill itself. Some people go crazy because the guilt they carry is so intense that it prevents normal life to exist.
A suicide bomber, which is a recent human behavioural phenomenon used by terrorists, is someone whose mind has been filled with so much hate by indoctrination that this person will sacrifice his own life to achieve a goal. He/she is told that he/she will be a hero, will be on every TV screen across the world and in every newspaper and that he/she will be remembered for eternity and finally that God or Allah is waiting to receive him/her in the afterlife and this person agrees to strap a bomb on his/her body go in a crowd and detonate the bomb. How does this happen? Well the mind has been conditioned to self-destruct for a perceived good cause.
Sharing the burden of guilt and remorse
It is non cons tat (not clear) why many sufferers end up talking to someone about his/her distress and finds relief by just sharing the burden to a good listener or a holy man, sometimes we call this confession. Many guilty people have walked into a police station and asked to be arrested and confess to crimes which the police would perhaps not have been able to solve. Other remedies are prayers and reverting to working for charity and caring for others in an attempt to come to terms with one’s guilt.
Remorse is a personal feeling of regret. It is closely related to guilt and it is usually suffered by someone who has committed a shameful act, for example hurt someone, killed someone or assisted in the act of hurting and/or killing someone. Remorse is associated with guilt, because the person is looking for a way out of this dilemma either by confessing and/or make amends by paying for the crime to satisfy remorse. He/she regrets having committed the crime and knows that someone somewhere is grieving for their loss as a result of his/her action. Remorse follows guilt. In law courts remorse is sometimes taken into consideration by a judge before sentencing. A crime appears to be more severe if the perpetrator shows no remorse which has prompted the saying “cold blooded murder” because the offender shows no regret for having committed the crime but if remorse is present then it is viewed as restorative justice.
Sometimes the sentence will carry an element of community work to show remorse in action. Sometimes the offender is encouraged to “repair the damage” to make good in some way, for example, by facing the people he/she has hurt and saying “sorry”. Not just saying it but saying it with conviction and sincerity. It also serves as a deterrent to the offender and anyone else involved or watching not to do the same thing in the future. This must be done on SBC TV not just in private. Whenever such a restorative exercise has been put into practice, like it happened at Montagne Posée Prison recently, dialogue between the offender and the victim has shown a high degree of satisfaction by both the offender and the victim which in turn has created accountability on the part of the offender. Remorse is a psychopathic trait along the line of fear. Sometimes fear will trigger remorse. A person who has committed a crime fears being found out and being punished, and he/she develops remorse in the hope that the sentence and punishment will be less severe.
Repentance and forgiveness
Repentance, in soteriology (the study of religious doctrines of salvation) follows remorse. A person feels guilty, feels remorse and now is ready to pay for the crime. The person is looking for reconciliation. The repentant is afraid to face the victim therefore a “middleman” such as a holy man or an organisation is required to effect the introduction. It has been established that one can pray as much as possible, one can ask God’s forgiveness but nothing can take the place of the offender asking the victim for forgiveness.
Forgiveness is a voluntary emotional act of pardoning the person/s who has/have caused you harm. Forgiveness relives hate and revenge and can be very rewarding but it takes a great deal of courage to set it in motion. It is a restorative action that leads to or is a by-product of reconciliation. Before forgiveness can be granted the offender must offer the victim an apology and ask for forgiveness. The victim must read in the offender’s body language and tone of voice the signs that this is a genuine apology to trigger emotions of forgiveness. Christianity preaches “forgive those who have trespassed against you” and forgiveness is not an option it is mandatory. Islam says “seeking forgiveness from Allah with repentance is a virtue”.The Qur’an recommends that whenever possible it is better to forgive. The Baha’i Faith says “see with the sight of forgiveness of the shortcomings of others”. Buddhism preaches “release from suffering through mediation” and receiving insight and forgiveness is considered one of the six cardinal virtues of Hinduism.
The Platform (STRPP) will also arrange, via external organisations, the treatments needed by the parties to deal with the psychological distress the Coup D’état has brought to our nation.The treatments can be arranged prior to telling their stories or after telling their stories. Whatever happens we must let people tell their stories soon. For sure we will listen and listen well.
Contributed by:
Barry Laine FCIM, FInst SMM, MCMI, MBSCH
Seychelles Truth Reconciliation and Peace Platform (STRPP)
P O Box 1336, Victoria, Mahe, Seychelles
Web site – www.seychellestruthreconciliation.sc
Emails – info@seychellestruthreconciliation.sc