Rape, no joke

On Sunday afternoon of July 30, 2000, Mr. Tarzan was interviewed in Liputan 6, a news program aired by one of the private television stations in Jakarta, on Doyok's alleged involvement in narcotics. When answering one of the questions posed by the interviewer, Mr. Tarzan, who may have intended to tell Doyok, one of his fellow comedians, to adopt an attitude of resignation in facing his case, made the following analogy: " When a woman is being raped she must shout but if she has done so but there is still no help forthcoming, it would be better for her to just enjoy the rape."

Unfortunately, the interviewer, neither responding to this analogy, perhaps out of ignorance or insensitivity, nor interrupting the analogy that Mr. Tarzan had made, simply proceeded with the interview without the slightest sign of being unnerved.

It must be noted that rape is one of the forms of violence against women categorized as a crime against humanity. Rape also means the destroying of the victim's future and making the rest of her life miserable. Television, which, as an electronic medium, should be expected to make provision for the education of the people at large, showed itself to be completely insensitive in airing a program which undoubtedly attracted a large audience, and in which the analogy that Mr. Tarzan made obviously constituted an act of belittlement of women. This analogy purported to say that rape may be considered as a humorous or laughable matter.

MAGDALENA SITORUS

Action Solidarity towards Victims of Violence

against Children and Women (SIKAP)