Breaking The Habit

Filipino Muslim Scholar hopeful for peace with new Bangsamoro Region

With the passing of the Bangsamoro Organic Law (BOL) last year, local Filipino academic Macapado Muslim was overjoyed, as he finally sees a chance for peace in the new Bangsamoro region. This is nearly three decades after he defended his doctoral dissertation on a non-violent, non-secessionist formula in addressing the armed struggle of minority Muslims in the southern Philippines.

“Interestingly, the BOL satisfies my 1990 peace formula on how to solve the Mindanao conflict,” said Muslim, in his newly published book, “The 2018 Bangsamoro Organic Law in the Philippines: Solving the Mindanao Conflict with Autonomy Plus Compensatory Justice.” He launched the book last January at the De La Salle University Campus in Manila.

“It’s regional euphoria all over,” said Muslim at the book launch, describing the mood “of the great majority of the Bangsamoro people” after the law’s ratification. Last Wednesday, a follow-through plebiscite was conducted in other areas that are seeking to join the newly established region.

The BOL paves the way for the restructuring of the current Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, replacing it with an autonomous Bangsamoro region, further empowering its local local government.

The term Bangsamoro refers to the identity of Filipino citizens and their descendants who were “natives or original inhabitants of Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago and its adjacent islands” at the time of Spanish colonization.

Source of the Mindanao conflict

Muslim, who earned his masters and doctorate degrees in political science from the University of Hawaii, and who is a native of the predominantly muslim city of Marawi, said in his book that what triggered the large-scale armed conflict in Mindanao was the “starkly dismal situation of the Moro society in the early 1970s.”

He wrote that they were “economically marginalized and impoverished; politically weakened, dominated and inferiorized; culturally constricted, trivialized and dispossessed of some aspects of their distant Moro cultural and Islamic identity; and their collective security and safety undermined and threatened.”

He adds that the 1996 attempt to solve the conflict through a peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) did not succeed because of the “flawed autonomy” that was granted to the region – on the contrary, it “metastasized” and “became virulent” with the emergence of armed Islamist groups including the Abu Sayyaf Group, the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, and the Maute Group

Strength of the Bangsamoro Organic Law

Muslim believes that the principal strength of the BOL is that it provides the Bangsamoro region with powers to address governance concerns, like the Sharia legal system and Islamic schools.

He adds that the ratified law, influenced by the best practices in autonomy governance in other countries with ethnic conflicts or cultural diversity-related problems and challenges, “has great potentials to succeed and finally solve the Mindanao conflict, given its responsiveness to the principal grievances of the Bangsamoro.”

“If implemented properly, the BOL can create conditions that can eventually lead to the final resolution of the conflict, thereby addressing the immediate and long-term requirements of sustainable development and peace, not only in the (Bangsamoro Autonomous Region), but also in Mindanao and the whole Philippines,” said Muslim.

Muslim also expressed optimism that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim “can provide a strong leadership” in the new Bangsamoro region.

Jolo bombing a stark reminder of the challenges to the peace process

During his book launch, Muslim confessed being “demoralized” by the Jan. 27 bombing of a Roman Catholic cathedral in Jolo, killing more than 20 people and injuring around 100 others.

“To my mind, the latest bombing in Jolo underscores the need to find a final, non-violent, peaceful settlement of the armed conflict in Mindanao. It’s also a loud call for united national action to address the problem,” he said.

Julio Teehankee, a political scientist and university professor who attended his book launch, shares his observation about the new Bangsamoro region. “The reprehensible bombing of the Jolo cathedral a few days after the successful ratification of the BOL is a stark reminder that the challenges to achieving peace in Mindanao remain,” he said.

The conflict in Mindanao has claimed the lives of around 120,000 people, and caused the displacement of more than 3.5 million Filipino citizens.

“The case of Mindanao is already 46 years old. We should not allow this problem to go beyond the next three years. It must be solved now, not later, not by my children, and their children,” said Muslim.

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