Kellys Kaunda
MY OPEN LETTER TO THE PSYCHOLOGY ASSOCIATION OF ZAMBIA (PAZ)
As a profession dedicated to the appreciation of human behavior, I invite you to apply the principles of political psychology to aid this country in its efforts to improve political behavior and good governance while making safe the political space for all. Maybe you are not bothered, but I am to see bad political behavior that has continued to play out for the last 59 years of our independence. To accept this behavior as normal is simply resigning to the problem, overwhelmed by its overpowering influence while numbing our collective sensibilities in the process.
From UNIP to UPND, every government has deployed the police into what is ideally a democratic arena. As always, the police have sided, protected, and defended the interests of those in power. Ideally, the police would be expected to play the role that a referee does in a sporting encounter, but not on the Zambian political turf. Players get bruised, shot at, killed, thrown into detention facilities far beyond legal limits, risk getting infected with communicable diseases due to the unsanitary conditions, etc.
Meanwhile, victims cry for their rights to be respected while their tormentors toss glasses of champagne behind the scenes celebrating their pain. When the roles switch as they often do, the tormentors become the victims and the latter become the tormentors. The language of demand for fair play and justice by PF today was the language of the UPND in opposition. The responses of the UPND in office today were the responses of the PF in office yesterday.
PAZ, do you know what this communicates to a non-political player? Sometimes it’s confusing, and sometimes it’s bewildering. What do our children make of this? That this is normal human behavior? No, it’s sadistic. This behavior must concern any person educated in the discipline of psychology. It is self-destructive and harmful to society. Our political players and the institutions that facilitate their destructive behavior won’t stop. Left on their own, they will continue to harm and maim one another.
Someone, with a different perspective, must step in and provide resources with which to navigate this unacceptable terrain. Our political players do not own the political space they have turned into a place of mayhem and bad behavior. The place is hallowed ground originally designed for the contestation of public policy ideas.
So, what am I suggesting to you? Call for a national symposium where expert papers should be shared showcasing the contributions of psychology to political behavior. Given the incisive nature of academic and scientific approaches, it may just challenge some political players to view politics through a different set of lenses. I am not suggesting that it will suddenly improve political behavior, but it will make available tools that those players willing to learn may reach for. Secondly, engage the media so that you become regular commentators on political behavior.
Employing the tools that psychosocial counselors deploy to influence a course of action or behavior, psychology, applied to political behavior, could just bring the difference that other disciplines may have failed to.
Regards,
Kellys
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