YESTERDAY’S edition of The National clearly underlined national attitudes towards violence.
A banner headline proclaimed zero tolerance on the part of Health Minister Zibe towards violence perpetrated against women and children.
The energetic Mr Zibe will be holding a forum tomorrow at Lae’s Sir Ignatius Kilage Stadium at which he will reveal his “action plan” to address the issue of violence against women and children.
The forum is reportedly to be attended by “a number of high profile personalities to speak on the issue”.
Mr Zibe’s says that his “action plan” “is to send a message to the community that victims of violence now have an avenue to seek help and ensure that the aggressors are held accountable for their actions.”
The report gave no indication of what that avenue might be.
We question whether a forum of high profile speakers will have any significant effect on the appalling growth of violence against women and children.
No matter how well-intentioned the speakers may be, they are unlikely to do more than add their verbal condemnation to the many other expressions of anger that have been publicly aired.
It’s simple to say that violence against women and children is evil and must be stamped out.
It is very much more difficult to become actively involved in the stamping.
There are people in the community who are working to either eradicate violence against women and children, or doing what they can to repair the damage that such violence generates.
We have learned to expect little active effort on the part of parliamentarians to address this issue.
It has always seemed to fall into the too hard basket.
Ironically, we have heard parliamentarians grumble among themselves that domestic violence is “samting bilong ol meri”.
Perhaps if ol meri had a reasonable number of places in the House, they might be able to address the issue once and for all. The suggestion that domestic violence is a matter for women alone to solve is of the utmost arrogance.
The issues of violence against women and children have been broadly debated in the media in the past few months. Outrage peaked over extreme brutality allegedly inflicted upon a young Highlands woman by her husband.
Subsequently grave doubts as to the truth of aspects of that story have been raised; yet violence, like corruption, is not to be measured by degree, either of culpability or of whether it is inflicted upon young or old, men or women.
And for The National, that’s the crux of the issue. Violence is not an issue that relates solely to women or children.
Violence is a state of mind, a series of attitudes that may evidence themselves in physical brutality.
The victims of violence are of both sexes and all ages. Many carry grievous physical wounds inflicted by spouses or others.
A significant number shows no outward signs of violence, yet they are still victims.
Mental torture works on a broader canvas and can paint an even more destructive picture than its physical twin.
It is time for PNG to fight all violence, whether between men and women, fathers and mothers and their children, or men engaged in tribal fights or urban gang clashes.
The continuing emphasis against violence aimed at women attacks an obvious and reprehensible target – but it is only an aspect of the problem facing our nation.
PNG can never hope to reach its goals unless it eradicates all violence, all clashes and fights, each and every excuse to injure women mentally or physically and every attempt to rob our children of their innocence and their childhood.
In most cases we already have the laws in place that are designed to put an end to violence in the community.
But do we have the willpower to make those laws stick?
Will we continue to find legal technicalities to free violent aggressors?
And will we continue to categorise offenders along the lines of their status in the community?
Violence committed by a member of the House is indeed a serious matter, because that member is supposedly a “leader”.
The National calls for an end to all violence imposed in PNG, regardless of sex or age.