EDITORIAL - Doing away with “tradition”

Nine fraternities and sororities in Cebu City have pledged to do away with hazing in their initiation rites for new recruits.

According to Cebu City Police Office spokeswoman Police Lt. Col. Ma. Theresa Macatangay, the Alpha Phi Omega, Scouts Royale Brotherhood, Beta Gamma Rho, Alpha Kappa Rho, Tau Gamma Phi/Sigma, Alpha Sigma Phi, Alpha Phi Epsilon, Gamma Phi Sigma, and Upsilon Phi Sigma have signed an agreement to no longer include hazing in their initiation rites.

"Apart from that, they also committed themselves to help law enforcement agencies, especially CCPO, if ever there are crimes that were committed or is to be committed or they have information of the suspects they will participate,” Macatangay said in a report in this newspaper.

While this pledge to avoid hazing and cooperate with the police sounds promising, there is no way we can really tell if they will follow this. Because by their very nature fraternities and sororities treat themselves like secret societies, they will have their own secrets and not everything that happens in such a group will be told to or known by outsiders.

Time and again we have criticized hazing or causing pain and suffering as a form of ritual acceptance for any group, whether fraternity, sorority, or even police or military academies.

Ask any fratman or fratwoman why there is a need to cause pain to those who want to be accepted as their brothers or sisters --just like one who appeared at a Senate hearing recently-- and he or she may not be able to fully explain the need for it, except to say it is a “tradition” that has to be followed.

It can’t even be used by policemen or soldiers as a means to enforce discipline or obedience; in fact it will just cause resentment.

It is also a “tradition” that can get more violent with each iteration and generation, because others who experienced hazing, beating, pain, and suffering will feel slighted if they can’t do the same to others when their turn comes to initiate new members.

While these fraternities and sororities have made such a promise to the public, only time will tell if they will really do away such meaningless “traditions”.