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.