MNLF and the Lessons of History: A Struggle for Recognition and Redistribution

Reference to Eric Gutierrez's commentary 

"Misuari and the lessons of inclusion", in Rappler 

Source: MCW

Eric Gutierrez offers here a very good analysis focusing on Nur Misuari against the background of changing historical and social dynamics. In addition to an analysis of leaders of these rebels such as Misuari, we might as well understand the specificities of the causes of rebellion in Muslim Mindanao in all its complexities and sensitivities. 

Misuari's 'tantrums' is only a symptom — and that the ongoing armed confrontration in Zamboanga City and parts of Basilan as episodic — of the fundamental causes of rebellion with historical, socio-political, and economic-developmental dimensions. Even without the benefit of studying the history of these conflicts, a simple reading of the 1996 GRP-MNLF Final Peace Agreement would already tell us how and where our government institutions and our society as a whole have failed the agreement. A quick visit in Western Mindanao and the ARMM would also help us in our understanding — not to mention that the MNLF, or at least the ideas of their struggle, still has considerable mass base of supporters and sympathizers. Misuari has indeed 'blown it' and so have the administrations from Marcos to Cory to Ramos to Erap to Gloria to PNoy, as well as the former MNLF commanders and leaders who have betrayed their revolutionary idealism and have become co-opted and corrupted by money politics and the perks of being elites themselves in the mainstream plutocratic society. 

If I were to summarize the legitimate clamor and aspirations of the peoples of (Muslim) Mindanao as part of the Philippine state, it's about the struggle for recognition and redistribution. These civil-political rights for recognition and the socio-economic rights for redistribution were the promises of Malacañang's Imperial Manila to be accorded to our brethren in the ARMM peripheries. These were the fundamental ideals anchoring the GRP-MNLF Final Peace Agreement and are still the most basic concerns of the current GPH-MILF Framework Agreement negotiations.

It is only when we have learned the 'lessons of history' that we could attain lasting peace and development in Mindanao and the entire Philippine archipelago. Crucial to this learning is the realization of the peoples of Mindanao that the struggles for recognition and redistribution are too important to be entrusted to: the insincere politicians in the government, the war freaks in the military, the corrupt in regional and local governments, the selfish socio-cultural and religious bigots in the communities, and the leaders of armed groups who rhetorically use the plight of the oppressed and marginalized to advance their personalistic and parochial interests in amassing power and wealth. 

Another Mindanao is not only possible; it is also necessary!