Colonization and the Bangsa Moro Struggle and Call for Peace
by Atty. Jamil
Matalam
What
I offer here is only a perspective or frame concerning the political issues
involving and surrounding the Bangsa Moro. It is no political position,
although it is my position that only democratic or political solutions are
really possible. I point out here the urgency of peace to deter the outbreak of
a possible catastrophic violence or war.
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A
Filipino must be perplexed why Jose Rizal, whose portrait most teachers of
Philippine history tell us was: an artist, sweet boy, timid, short in height and
alone was sentenced to death? He is no ‘terrorist’, in fact, even in his
radical stage in the El Filibusterismo,
he would not use the explosives to kill all the oppressors partying in one
house—the perfect opportunity. But because he has to be put to death by the
authorities, it is clear that he was perceived, at least by the government, to
be a dangerous man. But why would a Jose Rizal, unarmed, be dangerous?
To that question there could be one good answer: Rizal, despite the timid
portrait, is a dangerous radical. He wanted to actually create a “Filipino
Nation”—the most radical idea. In doing so he did not only challenged
‘politically’ the colonial government but also the very foundation for its
establishment in the Islands. He discovered that the history of the people of
these Islands has a past way long before the arrival of Magellan, i.e. that
Magellan discovered these Islands was the greatest lie! In his stay in London
he found out that the people of these Islands were prosperous and have wealthy
economic life with its neighboring Malays, Indians and Chinese before they were
deliberately isolated by its Spanish colonizers. Their lives were killed, the
people of these Islands were robbed of their history and was separated from
their race—a grand scale identity kidnapping. In order to build a Filipino
Nation and revive the lives of the people of these Islands, Rizal asked that
the Spanish colonizers and Powers to leave.
Among
the various reasons for the colonial policy of isolating these Islands with its
race, there are two possible good reasons. First, known to and thought by Rizal,
is to control possible uprising and resistance by the people; the colonizers
thought that if the people of these Islands maintain relations with the rest of
their race, strong resistance to their powers would easily come. Thus, according
to Rizal, the economic life of these Islands for a long time was mainly
restricted to Acapulco, Mexico, regardless of how it would devastate the lives
of its people. Second is the 1529 Capitulation of Zaragoza between Portugal and
Spain. The treaty of Zaragoza restricted possible Spanish colonies to the
Pacific and West America. In fact, however, Spanish colonization of these
Islands was in violation of the treaty, but it was tolerated by the Portuguese
Crown. It was this violation that led the Spanish powers to isolate these
Islands and its people from the rest of its race, i.e. they cannot anymore colonize
other areas in Asia aside from these Islands. This is the history of the modern
Philippine territory, how it came to be geographically defined.
Whether
Rizal has in mind the modern Philippine territory when he thought of his
Filipino Nation is unclear. Maybe it is because the juridico-legal meaning of
the term territory was not as important during his time compared today. In
modern legal theory, territory means sovereign jurisdiction. In the formation of the Philippine Republic,
which is a modern state, the colonial boundaries was assumed and adapted
unquestionably. Our unmindfulness of the colonial boundaries for a long time now
proves to be a great obstacle that we have to hurdle for us to move as a
people—the Bangsa Moro struggle.
The
colonial boundaries set by European powers were no cultural boundaries. It did
not take into consideration cultural differences and the history of the people of
these Islands. Juxtapose this with the modern concept of territorial
jurisdiction, and then we have, in the Philippines, the Bangsa Moro struggle. The
treaties of Tordesillas, Zaragoza and Paris need not mind the actual cultural
boundaries because it only involves them and not the people of these Islands.
But, nevertheless, the colonizers did recognize cultural boundaries in their
actual dealings with the people of these Islands; for instance, entering into
treaties with the Sultanates of Maguindanao and Sulu. It was only when the
Independent Philippines emerged that these cultural differences was set aside
in government policies and laws. So much so that the new Independent
Philippines, with its modern theory of territorial jurisdiction, thought that
it was not illegal to occupy the lands and divest the indigenous peoples of
Mindanao and Sulu of their land holdings; it was only a sovereign or a state act.
The
forgetfulness of our long and rich pre-colonial history together with the
neglect to consider cultural boundaries in these Islands makes it difficult for
many of us to properly think of the Bangsa Moro struggle normatively and
politically. For them, normatively, the Bangsa Moro struggle is not even a
struggle but only a criminal act, at least a rebellion. Politically, we think that
it can be solved by mere enforcement of the laws, legal and not political. It
should have been seen as an assertion of cultural boundaries and sovereignties;
the Bangsa Moro struggle is a secessionist movement.
Our persistence
not to see this as problematic only exacerbates the difficulty in the search
for practical or political solutions. For instance, because the history of the
Philippines give the arrival of Magellan a central role, which it does not
deserve, it does not understand well the Islamic history and dimensions of the
Moro people—they are mere pirates. It fails to see that (1) the Bangsa Moro
struggle is not merely local, and considering that the Moro people were Muslims
even prior to Magellan’s arrival, (2) historical developments in the Muslim
world will affect the Bangsa Moro. This is also the reason why an all-out war,
not only the most stupid, will never be a solution—this would require genocide
of a people part of the Muslim world. The might of the Muslim world would
descent in these Islands if that ever happens.
No war can be a
solution therefore for all. There can only be political solutions and political
solutions are most urgent now. The recent incident in Mamasapano, Maguindanao,
by now has reached the Muslim warriors at the power centers of the Islamic
world, and would interpret that as an invitation to come in. If they come,
their enemies will come as well, turning these Islands into their battle
fields, and its people fighting a war that is not truly theirs. We have to call
for peace and find democratic or political solutions to the problems that beset
the Bangsa Moro in order for us to determine our destiny as a people and not be
mere flow in the ebb of global politics. This would entail re-examining our assumptions
about what a Filipino Nation is.
