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- guardian.co.uk, Sunday September 29 2002 04.15 BST
Mishima's excruciating exit from the world was not only the last stand of a by now deranged fanatic but also a final protest against the banality of post-modern consumer society. Observing the antics of the Ulster Unionist Party is a bit like watching Mishima's disembowelment: a long, painful, self-inflicted demise.
Like Mishima, rather than accepting and dealing with the reality around them, the Ulster Unionists (or at least those in the anti-Agreement camp) at first want to recreate a republican/nationalist-free Arcadia and when that is unrealisable they then commit political hari-kiri. Because slowly but surely the UUP are leading the entire unionist population in the North towards defeat. They are planning in January to cut out the vital organs on which the very union they vow to protect now functions and survives - the Assembly at Stormont, the devolved administration, the North-South bodies over which they have some veto and control. Rather than compromise with reality - unpalatable for them maybe but in the case of Sinn Fein's rise, in large part unionism's own creation - the UUP seems fixed on the path of self-destruction.
Last weekend leading figures in the UUP's 'No' camp were walking around the Ramada Hotel in south Belfast as proud as peacocks. Several anti-Agreement activists caused considerable embarrassment to David Kerr, former press officer to David Trimble, congratulating him for his father Bertie's U-turn towards the 'No' faction. Lord Molyneaux looked particularly pleased with himself after his successor was humiliated and forced to adopt a more hard-line position that will probably lead to the fall of the powersharing executive. It was like the old days again, saying no, being obstinate, stomping their feet in defiance. Yet virtually no one in the hall it seemed had stopped to think long and hard about the various consequences of their actions.
First there is the fate of the SDLP. On the same afternoon across the River Lagan, at the futuristic W5 complex in the Odyssey Centre, the party of moderate nationalism was holding a conference on 'unity in diversity'.
After the vote at the Ramada there was little unity and plenty of discord over at the W5. Mark Durkan looked visibly drained by the news from the Ulster Unionist Council meeting. He no doubt understands even if the unionists don't, that their threat to pull power sharing down only strengthens Sinn Fein's hand. Because increasing numbers of nationalist voters, particularly younger ones, are going to swallow the Shinner's line that unionists don't really want a Catholic about the place and that the only way to stand up for your rights is to vote for an equally uncompromising nationalism.
Furthermore, the delegates at the Ramada seem unable to grasp a fundamental fact of political life: the growing Sinn Fein constituency. The paradox of the political process is that Sinn Fein's vote is building in direct proportion to its trajectory away from the so-called armed struggle. Think of the ideological somersaults that the Provisionals have committed since the second cease-fire in 1997: sitting in rather than smashing Stormont; accepting a principle of consent they once dismissed as an undemocratic unionist veto; decommissioning arms rather than, pace Brian Keenan, 'the British state in Ireland'; inching ever closer to the new policing arrangements; condemning armed republican attacks on PSNI recruits; attending British Army war dead commemorations and being ultra sensitive (Alex Maskey's central achievement as Lord Mayor) to unionist feelings.
Yet instead of pointing out these milestones on Sinn Fein's retreat from purist armed republicanism the 'No' unionists portray every small peripheral concession as stepping stones to their own doomsday - a United Ireland.
This self-fulfilling death wish is grounded in unionism's history. It is a narrative of entirely self-inflicted damage: resistance to the moderate reformist demands of the Civil Rights Movement; the destruction of the 1974 powersharing arrangement; the refusal by up to 50 per cent of the unionist population to embrace the Good Friday Agreement; the failure to recognise the Provisional's incredible journey from republican ideology towards constitutional nationalism.
As he was using the sword to cut out his innards, following the Japanese death cult of 'Seppuka', Mishima shouted: 'Long live the Emperor.' You can just imagine the unionist leadership post-Trimble crying out 'God Save the Queen' as they begin the slow but inexorable ritual of self inflicted defeat.
