ONE of the most familiar subjects published in the pages of this newspaper is gender-based violence (GBV) — its persistence in society, its explosive emergence into public view from time to time, and those few times the law catches up and deals with it.
It is an abhorrent and unacceptable affront to our people. It is a direct assault on fundamental human rights — the dignity of an individual, the right to liberty, equality, justice and the right to life itself.
The condition seeps insidiously from every pore of society’s nooks and crannies and stampedes openly in PNG, masquerading in cultural guises.
There are no cultural guises, modern or traditional, that can excuse this terrible blight upon society.
It is violence, repugnant and inexcusable.
Stemming the tide is exasperatingly difficult and frustrating in the extreme as experienced in Papua New Guinea.
The cause of this frustration is not that the problem is not known but that it will not go away even when it is revealed in its full diabolical nature.
By and large the campaign to alert people to the horrors and the criminal nature of gender based violence has been quite successful across almost all strata of society, both rural and urban settings.
Parliament has taken action against it and the government and private sector have various policies and programmes actively addressing GBV.
Despite this public acknowledgement and serious measures introduced to contain it, GBV continues.
And this may be because this campaign, like most campaigns, has inadvertently arrayed forces into a for and against divide. There is a certain “us vs them” kind of feel to it; a certain “male vs female” tinge that ought never to be there.
It is easy to see why this has developed in a socio-economic environment like Papua New Guinea.
The conditions that spur gender-based violence in many cases are alcoholism, drugs abuse, gambling, adultery and unemployment is viewed largely as a male evil and that the female is victim.
The female is favoured and protected as a victim. The male, with all the pressures that press him into alcohol, drugs, gambling and other vices, is left to his own devices and treated as a recluse or a criminal.
Looking in from the outside, he decides like all outlaws, to remain on the outside and to continue his lifestyle.
It is this that the GBV strategy needs to address in the long term.
The man who continually bashes up his partner or wife suffers from a serious condition that warrants attention as well.
He needs counselling and rehabilitation as well as the victim of his violence.
The longer term strategy has to focus on the conditions that give rise to sustain violence at home.
While much work and resources must be directed to the pressing issues of care and protection of the victims of GBV and of finding justice for them, there is an equally great need to work towards arresting the violence in the first instance by addressing the root causes for it.
Developing strategies to look after victims is important work and must be encouraged, supported with resources and continued, but it is attacking the snake at the tail end.
The head remains to continue to bite at will. It is the head that must be attacked and crushed.
Only then will the problem cease its turbulent lashing and slashing.
It is to this cause that long term strategies must be developed and applied.
Such a strategy must:
- BE mind and habit changing;
- BE inclusive and participatory; and
- TARGET whole of society, not sectors of it.
Such a strategy must have at its core the values that must dwell in all homes – love, care, security that come from sharing, understanding and listening.
A strategy grounded in these virtues has a chance of arresting this blight upon individuals, families and communities.
Unless arrested it has the potential to destroy personal and familial growth and cohesion and seriously undermine development efforts to grow and prosper the nation.
Growth and prosperity are dependent upon the peace and security that individuals find at home and in the community.
Destroy that and we invite hatred, discord, disunity and mayhem.
It is so important that all efforts are made to find the causes for GBV and having found them to yang them out root and stem, throw them into the fire and prevent their further growth.
Nothing can be more detrimental to efforts at creating a peaceful society than violence and hatred introduced repeatedly at the hub of love — in the home — and between the progenitors of love — a family.
And it is in a strategy aimed at keeping love and peace in the home that success can be found.
