Gender-based violence In perspective

LIFESTYLE

By ERIC PIET
IN recent times incidents of violence against women have become so serious and rampant in the country, and many women now see and feel that this country is not safe anymore for them.
On June 23, another gruesome killing of a young mother by her intimate partner made headlines in the country and even in the world, prompting many to condemn it and demand justice to be served on the perpetrator.
In the swing of this uncalled for crime, both the mainstream and social media had been inundated with public outcry for strengthening of existing laws to address gender-based violence, child protection and family issues with their sufficiency put on the spotlight. Some commentators have unscrupulously labelled the Department for Community Development and Religion, as a mandated government agency in doing little to nothing in address this issue which has become a threat for the country’s progress.
While all are entitled to their freedom of speech, we however must understand that the said department has done what it could and is still doing to protect women, children and families. Our setback is not insufficient appropriate legislation to address gender-based violence or more appropriately intimate partner violence issues, but in how existing laws are being enforced. In fact, we already have enough capable laws to protect our women and children who are hardest hit by GBV acts, and these were all outlined in the media statement from the department some time after the news of the death of the young mother. In that statement the department also strongly condemned the violent nature of the case.
Over the years the department had introduced the Lukautim Pikinini (Child Protection) Act, Family Protection Act, and the National Prevention and Response to Gender-Based Violence with the hope of protecting women, children and families. And there is also the Criminal Code Act under which assault, grievous bodily harm, attempted murder, manslaughter and murder are all indictable offences.
So there we have the preventive and protective laws against violence perpetrated on women, children and families; we only need enforcement of these laws. As such, those dealing with enforcement must be held accountable for incompetency, when many women and children are falling victim to GBV despite these laws in place.
It is obvious these days that women have gained strength to come out and expose the crimes committed against them. The trend and pattern of these crimes have changed with perpetrators, particularly men, becoming more violent. This begs the question why they are resorting to such extremely violent behaviour resulting in serious harm and in some instances death.
What is even more unacceptable is the fact that many of the perpetrators come from well-to-do family backgrounds and who should otherwise be more respectful and protective towards women and children.

Call to research the issue
From some informal street talk especially by menfolk, it was suggested that the reason for their violent nature against their intimate partners was to protect their integrity as heads of families based on a perception that women these days tend to use the law that protects them to provoke their partners through their behaviour and actions.
Others have blamed digital technology apps such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and the most recently introduced TikTok as underlying reasons for the increase in the GBV incidents. Still others say there are other reasons for male partner violence in PNG.
While these may not be fully agreed to, it only makes a lot of sense to support a call made for nationwide research and survey on the issue by Warren Marape, a senior public servant with the Department for Community Development and Religion.
Marape proposed for the responsible government agencies to financially support and partner with National Research Institute (NRI) to research the causes of the rise in GBV incidences. Only then can the Government be in an informed state to utilise the research results to either amend existing laws or enact new ones to critically address the vicious issue.

Men and boys as catalyst to stop violence against women and girls
Under the direction and strategic leadership of Secretary Anna Kavana Bais, the department has recently introduced a new strategy to augment the traditional approach in addressing GBV.
The conventional method is that many programmes of advocacy, prevention and support in tackling GBV over the last three decades focused on women. And traditionally this has been strongly supported by development partners, women’s organisations, churches and civil society organisations.
However, the department is saying enough of focusing on the victim alone, the perpetrator has to be equally factored in the equation.
To initiate this approach, the department has held the inaugural National Men’s Forum in 2017 and again in 2019 for the Highlands Region to drive the message forward.From the two gatherings it was noted that the main causal factors were; imbalance of power between women and men, lack of communication, cultural misunderstanding and differences, poverty, male ego and social media.
And to end GBV, PNG has sufficient necessary laws that already protect women, children and families; we only need these laws to be enforced more effectively.
But if more needs to be done, as per the public outrage and demand, to strengthen those laws through amendment and enactment of new ones, research has to be carried out to uncover the underlying reasons for the worrying rise in GBV incidences in the recent times.
Importantly, the latest strategy introduced by the Department for Community Development and Religion to utilise men and boys as catalysts to stop violence against women and girls through the men’s forum, and factoring the GBV perpetrators in the rehabilitation programmes is a high call for development partners to channel their resources into and collaborate with the department to achieve desired outcomes.

• Eric Piet is a freelance writer

School cult practices also to blame

By Ps PETER AGLUM
DOMESTIC and gender-based violence are hitting the headlines lately.
A lot of people are condemning the actions outright and asking for tougher penalties against the perpetrators.
However, one of the main contributing factors overlooked and which must be taken into consideration when dealing with such cases is the spiritual aspect of a person.
I have been talking about violence in sorcery in the previous three articles in this publication.
I explained that there is a spiritual force or a demonic spirit living inside a person and driving that person against his or her will by using the body of the person to accomplish the demon’s will and that is to steal, kill and destroy (John10:10a).
I used the analogy of a car as in the case of a person and the demon spirit.
It is like a person driving a car and losing control, killing a bystander. The driver, after realising that he has killed a person leaves the car and flees from the scene. People become angry and smash the car and burn it. In actual fact it is not the car that killed the person but the careless driver. The driver who killed the person escapes and the car becomes the victim.
Likewise the demon spirit who causes the death of the person escapes untouched (as spirits do not have flesh and blood) while the host/person becomes the victim. People are murdering, torturing or inflicting pain on innocent persons.
A lot of demon-possessed people that I had interviewed told me the same thing. Here is one testimony of a young man after he was successfully delivered. He confessed to his mother and said: “Mom, I love you so much and I don’t want to hurt you. It’s not me who is hurting you. The punches that you receive and the swearing words that come out from my mouth are not mine.
“The demons in me are using my flesh to hurt you. I am trapped within myself. I watched helplessly when they inflict pain upon you and my family. The demons are controlling me and I’m only living to please them and accomplish their will.”
Recently, there have been lots of brutal killings, murders, tortures in various places and most of them are mysterious. When we trace back our history, there was never such killings and violence in our societies. Husbands beat wives only for disciplinary reasons using reasonable force. However, these days, the force used against other people is so extreme to the point of taking lives.
So what could be the reason behind such violent behaviours in the lives of the young people?
There are many contributing factors but I would like to discuss the spiritual aspect of such violent behaviour.
In some of our high and secondary schools, cult practices are a tradition which has been passed down every year. The students are divided into tribal groups or provincial groups. Every student is forced to be in a group of their choice. At the end of each year before the Grade 12 students pass out, they hold an initiation ceremony and pass on the demon spirits to the new intakes in lower grades.
They hold an initiation ceremony called paitim bros or chest beating.
During this initiation, the Grade 12 students line up and punch the new comers on their chests. If there are 30 students in that group, the new comer gets 30 punches on the chest. During this time they pass on demons to the new comer. The new comer also gets a new name, usually made up of swear words.
That name is actually the demon’s name that he/she carries within.
The Grade 12 students also pass on shirts, caps, bones, leaves, tree barks and other demonic ritual items believed to contain demonic powers. The ceremony is done in a hostile and aggressive manner thus passing on and imparting aggressive demons into students. Some initiations are very dangerous as students can kill one of their peers and offer him/her to the devil.
Right after the initiation ceremonies, some students can be sent straight to hospital or bed-ridden for many days because of the violent force used against them.
After the initiation the students are controlled and manipulated by the evil spirits inside them.
Therefore, you will find activities such as school fights; wild parties or orgies, holdups, gang rapes, gender-based violence, and rebellion against parents and family members. Every year thousands of Grade 12 students passed out of the schools. Some attended universities; some dropout while others are already in the workforce. We can look at the outside appearance, family background and say that they are good kids but inside they are controlled by evil spirits.
Sooner or later we will know them by their fruits as the Bible states in Mathew 7:15-20.
I suggest the following actions to be taken as steps to resolving this serious threat to our societies: 1. Government and educational institutions must come up with strict policy guidelines and also dismantle all cult activities; 2. Families must quickly report children with unusual behaviour to church pastors trained in deliverance for assistance; 3. Perpetrators of violence must be reported to police and pastors with the gift of deliverance to be attached with the policy Family and Sexual Violence Unit (FSVU) to assist; and 4. Churches with the deliverance ministry must be identified and used in this area to solve the spiritual problems.
I interviewed many young men and women who had been involved in cult activities and got delivered and they confessed to me disturbing and mind-blowing stories. I am really confident that one of the major contributing factors in gender-based violence and other evil activities among young people is cult practices.
If you have any questions you can reach me through: Phone: 75202371/71185033 Email: [email protected]