MILF: Editorial--Education and the Moro ‘Problem’

Editorial posted to the MILF Website (Feb 15-21): Education and the Moro ‘Problem’

There is general truth to the view that education is the final clincher to solving the Moro Problem, nay ‘Question’, in Mindanao. There’s hardly any contrary view to it, because without education, no one can find the proper right path in this world, because it puts one’s potentials to maximum use.

Basically, the importance of education are two-fold: 1) it makes man a right thinker. Without education, no one can think properly in an appropriate context. It tells man how to think and how to make decision; and 2) it is only through the attainment of education that man is enabled to receive information from the external world. Without education, man is as though in a closed room and with education he finds himself in a room with all its windows open towards the outside world.

The first verse of the Qur’an starts with “iqra”, an Arabic word for read; and in its larger context, it is education. This showcases how Islam puts education as key to man as God’s vicegerent of God on earth.

However, to over-stress education as the long term solution to the Moro Question is to miss the point already settled by the Parties in the current negotiation that this “Problem” is political in nature. It is about negotiation to restore back to the Bangsamoro people their right to self-governance in a state-substate asymmetrical relationship.

Even if all Moros are sent to schools and get the best education possible, their assertion of their right to self-determination will continue. In truth, the more they are schooled, the more their assertion becomes more intense and intellectually upright. It is a cardinal truth in almost all revolutionary struggles in the world that they are invariably led by people of understanding or those who attained some degree of education?

Examine the MILF, MNLF and its various factions, the NDF, and other struggles such as in Cuba, Vietnam, China, Algeria, Palestine, South America, etc. Perhaps the only exceptions were the Katipunan led by Andres Bonifacio and the jihadic struggle by Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon) who cannot read and write.

To recall, the government and the MILF agreed at the start of their negotiation in 1997 to have only one agenda: How to solve the Bangsamoro Problem. They have identified nine issues and concerns and education was one of the finer details of social and cultural discrimination.

 Education amongst Moros had been generally neglected and a high school graduate was and is only equivalent to grade six graduate in Metro Manila. This is the reason the MILF had listed education as second priority in its list when it agreed to partner with Aquino administration, as part of the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro, the Sajahatra Bangsamoro Program. It could have put this in the number one spot but people cannot go to school with empty stomachs and for which reason, basic livelihood projects got the premier spot in the list.

The MILF is fully aware that good and correct education is key to solving most of the ills of society that can propel them to development and progress. But again to put education as the all-embracing solution to the Moro Problem is to gloss over the fact that this problem is political.

http://www.luwaran.com/home/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3098:education-and-the-moro-problem&catid=344:gggg