Miseducation of Muslim-Moro electoralism

Media reporters — read, more accurately opinion editors — are wrong to say that casting of votes or counting of ballots runs afoul in the ARMM (Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao) simply because Muslim-Moro individuals have low literacy rate. What makes such comments most absurd is anti-Moro profiling of their leaders (if not out of discriminatory slant by sheer slur) who are perceived to keep them illiterate or uneducated enough to organize them into so-called �command votes� constituency.

By Datu Michael O. Mastura
Institute of Bangsamoro Studies

COTABATO CITY — To say that there is no real national policy on the Muslim-Moro in Mindanao and Sulu is to do nothing about immediate politics. But there is, I believe, a much stronger impulse to say or do a number of things during election period in the Philippines.

Not the least appropriate perhaps one can say categorically that there is strength in numbers after all to operate or manipulate “electoralism.” Far from there being a �free-Muslim Mindanao� conspiracy to eliminate the Bangsamoro people (and the MILF or the MNLF or the Abu Sayyaf) what they end up with is cooptation into money power politics. A preliminary statement of 21 observers from the ANFREL (Asian Network for Free Elections) who spent eight days to watch the ARMM pre-election situation and Election Day activity may be a starting point for change. Ballot secrecy folders were seen as ineffectual: Why? �This lack of secrecy can be very intimidating.� How can it be? It can facilitate vote-buying by allowing voters �to demonstrate their adherence to a previously struck bargain,� says the observer.

Media reporters — more accurately, opinion editors — are wrong to say that casting of votes or counting of ballots runs afoul in the ARMM (Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao) simply because Muslim-Moro individuals have low literacy rate. What makes such comments most absurd is anti-Moro profiling of their leaders (if not out of discriminatory slant by sheer slur) who are perceived to keep them illiterate or uneducated enough to organize them into so-called �command votes� constituency.

And that is an essential point. Things must change because political rights are granted to many people who are in no position to take full advantage of them. It makes sense to remind our people that it was former Comelec commissioner Haydee Yorac who had to pose: �Does Muslim Mindanao deserve elections?� That feisty lady had to utter those words in her feat of frustration with the clan politics of the late strong-man of Lanao del Sur, Ali Dimpaoro.

Historically, the right to vote was extended to Muslims, in 1959, after considerable struggles and compromises. Yet it takes a lot more logic (not magic) since the task of solving deficiencies in the election process falls on this republican State it being a societal dimension of citizenship. A cycle of anomalies derived from deferred electoralism is in fact an outgrowth of its very predatory nature: ineluctable party operators, senatorial tail-enders, and inept election officers all prey on “swing-vote areas” of the Bangsamoro people.

Not since the Hello Garci Tapes scandal has this country felt the troubling anomy that makes a mockery of the very substantive principle of legitimacy. Good warning to our readers here as to what we make of democracy now: a presidency whose alibi family resemblance is a “government of politicians” but not of “good men.” Thus, in a functioning system, the dictum “government is best that governs least” applies only to separate the private from what is public.

best glimpse at what ails electoralism starts at central party nominations where only at the top politicians would control what decision is happening and why. Little wonder “dynastic slots are reserved seats” in majority or minority coalitions. Others of a progressive-wing bent like Bayan Muna and Gabriela embrace the trade via the party list nominations; in readiness, the faith-based sectors and right-leaning coup plotters seek their own accredited political mouthpieces, too. Such is the parliamentary path that now undergirds broad-clientele-based conspiracy against the electorate in general, and in tandem with members of the fractious national political parties it logs on to the pork-barrel largesse networks.

remains to account for is current proliferation of LGUs (local government units) where the distributive function of the IRA (internal revenue allotments) is really at work. From experience, I contend, the national style of making politics perpetuates the dirty and dishonest electoralism. Targeting LGUs of the Muslim region of autonomy, the intended consequences are indeed disgraceful to us as it is a disservice to the whole country. How can this electoral process relate to the �primacy of the peace process� is a policy consideration that must steer a course between engaging and restraining armed force with regard for constituency �command concerns.� Something similar happens here in regard to clan politics: If they cannot bring their acts together to focus on this, very little concerted action happens.