Killing according to beliefs

THE gruesome killing of a woman last month in Mt Hagen for the charge of witchcraft or sorcery has been roundly condemned by all and sundry.

This may appear an inexcusable act perpetrated by uneducated and illiterate village folk but the first step to solving any problem is understanding.

What makes a normally sane person/s act in such a barbaric manner to another fellow human being?
And, more importantly, what are the factors that make such violent and brazen acts still prevalent in the 21st century?

The belief systems in Papua New Guinea are very much dominated by culture and tradition. Such significantly social norms such as marriages, deaths, lineal relationships, conflict resolution, leadership and decision making are still oriented toward our cultural roots.

Christianity and western philosophies (education) on law and order and moral conduct are not always aligned with how our ancestors ordered their lives. Unfortunately, many people in this country still hold fast to customary practices that seem out of sync with the modern course that we tread in these times.
But one must remember that around 70% of Papua New Guineans are classified as rural-based and subsistence farmers.  That means many people are illiterate or uneducated and continue to cling to what they know.

We must not discount the strength of these beliefs no matter how antiquated, how backward or counter-productive we may consider them to be.

The point here is that the people (Papua New Guineans), for better or for worse, believe wholly in their ancestral traditions. It is presumed that every society that inhabits this land has in their oral tradition stories and rituals regarding the spirit world and the super natural powers that are supposed to exist alongside man in the environment. These beliefs are what they use to explain the various occurrences such as death, personal misfortune, calamitous events and the like.

There must be an explanation to every event.

Beliefs are powerful no matter how crooked or unethically they may appear.The young woman burned alive last month may have been as innocent as the next person of any particular crime in the eyes of the law but her killers were only acting within the confines of their beliefs. They justified it as such and carried out their actions without consideration for the consequences.

To their minds, one must assume they were doing the right thing. They were acting for the good by removing an evil or a blemish on their community they believed existed.
The people, who perpetrate these heinous crimes, are for the most part normal functioning members of their societies. In certain parts of the Islamic world women and girls are stoned to death for perceived transgressions against the moral code adhered to by Muslims.
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This is an extreme interpretation of Sharia law but that is not to say that is not done based entirely on belief.
History also shows instances of people killing for their beliefs no matter how unfounded they may appear today. The witch trials of Salem, Massachusetts,  in the late 1600s shows that even the governing authority of the day was not immune from acting on claims and accusations that could not be quantified or scientifically proven – it was all done on hearsay and largely a matter of what society held as evil and needed to be destroyed.

The question now is how do we eradicate this practice in PNG?

Making laws specific to the crime is the obvious solution.  Going as far as treating these acts as capital crimes should be a formality. Enforcing these laws is the real challenge.
There cannot be any justification to behave this way in a country that not only claims to be Christian and professes to follow religious doctrine as its core truth but is in the on the path to assimilate completely to a modern world.

Education or enlightenment must be a long term solution to putting an end to sorcery killings. People must understand that no matter how profound their belief, this is neither the time not the place to be killing on the misguided assumption that they are doing the right thing.
PNG has entered the 21st century and if it hopes to make meaningful progress then a paradigm shift must be exacted not in modern PNG but with the majority in the rest of the country.

OP/ED