THERE ARE two kinds of cruelty to children in Jamaica: institutional cruelty and parental cruelty. Both are shameful blots on our national character. Institutional cruelty and neglect in some State-run institutions have recently been exposed to public scrutiny, including widespread sexual abuse in the system. Now comes Fr. Richard Ho Lung's heartbreaking account on the editorial page of this newspaper on Monday about a mother who beat her six-year-old daughter with a strap for breaking a glass and not confessing the accident.
That this merciless beating took place in public in front of a crowd that seems to have supported it, adds another layer of degradation to the event. What is also frighteningly relevant is the mother's response to attempts by Brother Rodolfo, one of Fr. Ho Lung's Missionaries of the Poor, to stop the 10-minute frenzy, claiming in effect that since the child was hers she could do with the little girl what she wanted. Equally significant is that the crowd supported this position. This reflects a deep-seated misconception that a child is a chattel with no human rights. Furthermore the Government has been slow to introduce legislation to root this out.
The disproportion between the punishment and the 'crime' of breaking a glass and the physical pain of the whipping aside, it is the public humiliation of the little girl, pleading for mercy, which would move any right-thinking person to tears. Fr. Ho Lung was right to bring this disgraceful incident to public attention, not the least because such parental anger and uncontrolled wrath is much too common in the society. It verges on pathological sadism and perhaps it would take a trained theologian like Fr. Ho Lung to explain what could so corrupt the normal maternal instinct of a mother to love her children. Perhaps the mother was herself abused as a child and is now passing on a hideous heritage of violence.
We urge the authorities to make an example of this case. The police should immediately take statements from those who witnessed the incident and, if the evidence stands up, the mother should be arrested and brought before the court. Child Services should be able to determine whether the mother is psychologically fit to be a parent and, if not, the child should be removed to some alternative form of foster care. Jamaica must protect its children from abuse.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
