We & The Others : Towards Multiculturalism

I spent most days last week in this season of Ramadan talking to Shari’a court judges and learned scholars and ordinary folks in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) and I have come out from that experience renewed with my long standing personal resolve that we should not be afraid of a separate juridical entity or another state for Muslim Mindanao. 

I say this also in reaction to a recent opinion by Amando Doronila in the Philippine Daily Inquirer ( PDI, Aug 23, 2010) saying that the Dean Marvic Leonen remark about being open to the option of charter change if needed for a new peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) is reviving the controversial issue of Philippine national territory partition. This remark by Doronila has been perceived to be not promoting “self determination.” In this sense, media should look at the issues with good judgment. For example, to implement some of the 1976 provisions of the Tripoli agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), the required constitutional amendment happened in 1987 and the Final Peace Agreement happened in 1996. Not that the decade long interregnum should be the rule but rather the exception. Suffice it to say that whatever political configuration is arrived at, the legal requirements and constitutional processes can be worked out and given a timetable.

Anyone afraid of partition needs to be educated about history and about multiculturalism. The Moro sultanates in Mindanao are older than the Philippine Republic. Given that the Mindanao problem is one of the longest running problems in the world, we should at the least, be open to new political configurations, partnerships and political projects. We can have parallel governments. Since time immemorial, the strategy is assimilation and integration of minority groups while the dominant groups are holding social, economic and political power. This has resulted to minoritization and subordination. We, women identify with what feminists call the “ othering process” because for centuries now we have come to be subordinate to men. Now, our ideals are multiculturalism, appreciation of cultural diversity, peace, equality and development. We want everything.

We can certainly learn from one of the oldest cultures in the world that has withstood time. We can enrich our differing cultures. We will share standards of human rights but we are also different in many ways.

Who is afraid of partition? Where is the fear coming from? Are we afraid of the Muslim culture? Are we afraid that we will be subjected to Muslim laws? Personal laws and status follow a person wherever he or she goes. Non Muslims will never be subjected to Muslim laws. We have freedom of religion. What we should be afraid of is when our church or umma will define for us how we should practice our religious freedom guarantee. We should be afraid of political projects of local kingpins for domination, control and hegemony through the misuse of religious symbols. Then, too, local kingpins can be in cahoots with a corrupt center of power. We are hoping that all these are in the past now and we have learned our lessons. We are not wanting in formulas for peace. What is needed is the political will to change the structures that do not work.