Violence is only the tip of iceberg

Violence is only the tip of iceberg

Violence can take on many forms and the one that utterly
manifested itself in last week's riots in Jakarta was just one of
them, according to Father B.S. Mardiatmadja, a Catholic priest
and a lecturer of philosophy at STF Driyarkara.

JAKARTA (JP): The word violence easily conjures up horror
pictures in our minds these days, like the hundreds of people who
broke through store doors, stole goods and sometimes killed the
store owners or, even worse, killed passersby. We remember also
how some were killed during the recent weeks of demonstrations in
our cities.

Many have expressed sorrow and even dismay over such violence.
It is real. It is understandable. We should be sorry that we
could engender such violence.

When referring to violence, we immediately think of physical
violence against a person, including, in its most extreme form,
murder. But we should see the whole picture, even the invisible
panorama. Then we will find that physical violence is only the
tiny tip of a huge iceberg.

We see the unhappy reality, that individuals and small groups
are increasingly becoming victims of various forms of violence.
Among the groups who are experiencing systematic violence as a
method of control are minorities, local tribes, women, children,
the unborn, bonded laborers, domestic workers, refugees and
migrants, prisoners and all those working in unorganized labor
and in low-income groups.

Violence is, in principle, any encroachment on the fundamental
rights of an individual or a group. It is the control and
subjugation of one human person to the will of another, which
diminishes both the dignity of the oppressed and the humanity of
the oppressor.

Moreover, violence is not only a desecration of individuals,
but also of whole groups in society. And as such, violence is a
transgression against the created order established by God.

In our society, there are individuals or groups who, because
of their social group, are denied opportunities granted to
others, they are given inadequate pay and forced to take only the
lowliest, most menial work.

On the other hand, there are individuals or groups who are
privileged to have better opportunities because of their birth
(because they are children of influential people), or their
relationships (because they are friends of very important
persons). There we see how nepotism and collusion are potential
and very often actual causes of economic violence.

There are persons who are dismissed from their positions,
arrested, even tortured and deprived of their rights because of
their political stance.

Then there are people who can do nearly everything to
influence and determine the political course of the country.

A positive law could enable them to become a very strong
pressure group. There are also oppressive and discriminatory
laws, ruthless or biased law enforcement, unrestricted police
practices, summary arrests, long-delayed trials, an over use of
Armed Forces to deal with civil disturbances, the suppression of
the right to dissent and freedom of association, excessive
militarization, and the most pervasive of all, corruption in
public life.

It is possible, therefore, that certain laws and bylaws become
tools for political violence.

In this view, we could do violence if we uproot and evict
people from their lands and homes on the pretext of "progress" or
for the "unity of the country".

This way, making individuals or social groups feel themselves
inferior, backward and "dispensable" is really a violence to
one's self-image ad self-respect.

It becomes a reality when we invade, degrade or destroyed
people's values, traditions and historical past. This is called
cultural violence. In this sense, denying religious freedom,
making an individual or group suffer for their beliefs and
discriminating groups of citizens because of their faith is truly
religious violence.

It is a pity that sometimes, cultural or religious violence is
done in the name of culture or religion.

We believe that family life is one of the most sacred
sanctuaries for our love. In the realm of love, we do not often
think of violence but, gender violence does exist.

When the dignity and rights of women are violated, when they
are paid less for the same work as a man, sexually harassed,
denied educational opportunities, or viewed as inferior to or
having lesser status than men, then we have gender violence.

Even against children there are violent actions. This happen
when they are forced into labor, often in subhuman conditions, or
subjected to physical abuse at home or school or sexual abuse by
pedophiles and sex tourists.

There is still much more violence besides physical violence.
There are even indications that many physically violent acts are
the result of greater or deeper violence.

It is our wish that we could stop street violence. But we
cannot wholly erase violence from our society unless we stop also
economical, political, cultural, psychical and religious
violence.