SIAPA LAGI YANG SUDI MEMBANTU?

UNCLES AND AUNTIES, CARE TO HELP US?

GOT BEEF?

REVISITING THE DISPLACED PEOPLE OF MINDANAO by Kurais Abdullah Karim

* note: this article was originally published in the Millenia Muslim magazine early 2008.
* currently more that 500,000 people are displaced because of war in Mindanao.

The concept "evacuation" has been deeply embedded in the Moro psyche that the word has assimilated to their language. I am not aware of any word in my mother tongue that exactly corresponds to the term evacuation. Instead, we always use the word "bakwit", the Moro-ized version. "Mimbakwit" means had evacuated (past tense), "pembakwit" means evacuating (present tense) and "embakwit" means will evacuate (future tense). These words describe the long journey that we took, or more correctly, forced to take in our long history as armed conflict affected people.

A respected doctor in the Moro community once said "All of us (Moros) can be considered as evacuees. One way or another, we have in our family history a leaving of our birthplace or hometown due to war. This has been the legacy of the age-old conflict." If one looks to the past, to our grandparents and great grandparents' history, this notion actually makes sense. It is hard to imagine that once upon a time, the Moros enjoyed sovereignty of Mindanao and the neighboring islands.

This is an understatement. Salah Jubair, the author of the much acclaimed book "Bangsamoro, A Nation under Endless Tyranny", said that if the Spaniards' landfall to Philippines had only been delayed for at least fifty years, the whole archipelago would have been Islamized and there would be no "the only Christian country in Asia" that is the Philippines. This is based on the history written that before the coming of the Spaniards under the leadership of Ferdinand Magellan in 1521, Mindanao and Sulu were already strongholds of Islamic faith. Islam also had already gained grounds in Manila, Batangas, Pampanga, Cagayan, Mindoro, Palawan, Catanduanes, Bonbon, Cebu, Oton, Laguna and other districts.

Today, after centuries of war and oppression, Moro traditional lands have slipped away. Before the turn of the 20^th century, 98% of the lands in Mindanao and Sulu belong to the Moros but now only 20% remains to them. If only…as Salah Jubair said. There are many "if only's" in the lives of the Moros. Dreams of peace and prosperity are always out of reach. The people are always suffering. And perhaps the best picture of the suffering of the Moros can be seen in the plight of the evacuees.

We may call the locally displaced as evacuees but the internationally accepted term for them is IDP which stands for Internally Displaced Persons. Since they did not cross international borders, they cannot be called as refugee. These terms are quite powerful because they carry with them different connotations that determine their rights and privileges in humanitarian law.

The IDP in Mindanao has one of the longest histories in mankind if we count the centuries-old movement of the Moro people from their places of origin to where they are right now. In time, the migration of people from Visayas and Luzon encouraged by the then existing powers became successful in the reduction of the Moros to minority. Land titles were issued to thousands of Christians who were brave enough to settle in Moro lands. On the other hand, the Moro landlords were asked to register their lands and pay taxes to the government. This, to the Moros, was simply unacceptable.

The continuous movement of people from Luzon and Visayas resulted to the establishment of Christian communities amidst Moro lands. Churches were built and even the name of villages and streets were changed in order to adapt to the new masters of the land. In many cases, the Christian communities become so thriving that they achieved the status of a city, instead of just a township. Compared to the Muslim communities, the contrast is so striking that one can only ask why. Why are the Moro areas so poor and the non- Moros well developed? Some politicians use this as bad propaganda saying that the Moros were innately backward and lazy. But one only has to look at the consistent facts in history to answer the question.

Armed conflict always happen in Muslim (Moro) communities and very rare in Christian areas. Most government development projects are poured in Christian areas. As a result, Muslims are not only poor because the government is not helping them but also because the government is intentionally doing harm to them. To put it in finer words, the reason is rooted to the long-term marginalization of Moros in national development policy.

The "bakwit" of Mindanao are still plenty. Whether home-based or in evacuation centers, they live a life of suffering. Being uprooted from your house and leaving your possessions and livelihood behind is a situation only a few can imagine. As soon as you leave your house, regardless if it's a bungalow or a hut, your life and the lives of your family change drastically. Imagine the feeling of those who went through this experience not just once but many times. This is the case for many evacuees in Mindanao. It is a life low in dignity and much in suffering. One is reduced to being a beggar in order to survive. But the true and greater shame goes to the existing power which perpetrated the wars, thinking only of their gain and uncaring of the lifelong effects they inflict on innocent lives.

Many in the international community think that the problem in Mindanao has been settled and there is no more cause for worry. It is true that since the coming of the International Monitoring Team, the fighting was considerably reduced. It is true that the leading actors, the MILF and Government of the Republic of Philippines have finally agreed on the boundaries of the Moro ancestral lands after many years of dispute. But a final peace agreement has yet to be signed and skirmishes still persist in many areas in Mindanao. And how about the thousands of evacuees who always bear the brunt of the armed conflict? What is the long term plan for them? Nothing, it seems, as of the moment.

Consider these facts and figures:

• In March 2006, the United Nations through its World Food Programme (WFP), estimated that 120,000 people remained displaced in Mindanao due to armed conflict. This total included people displaced during the 2000 and 2003 wars and who had not been able to return home due to security problems or have not been rehabilitated.
• Between 95,600 and 115,600 people have been displaced by armed conflict since January 2007 in the Philippines, mainly in Mindanao.
• In 2006, an estimated 98,000 people were displaced by armed conflict, mainly on Mindanao island, while this number reached 115,000 people in 2005. The number of returns during 2005 and 2006 is unknown.
• According to the Philippine government, nearly 2 million people have been displaced by fighting between 2000 and 2006. Displacements in 2000 and 2003 accounted for 80 per cent of all displacements during that period.
• The majority of the displaced (both those displaced in 2006 as well as those displaced in previous years) are located in the Muslim-populated areas of the ARMM region (Mindanao) and in Central Mindanao.
• In 2007, armed incidents have displaced between 119,600 and 139,600 people in Mindanao between January and September 2007.

Five years ago, I met a woman whose husband perished in the war. She was struggling to provide for her four small children. She was quite tall and handsome but the hard lines on her face make her look older than her age. At that time, we are handing her a donation of about RM 100. She was one of the several widows we selected to receive assistance every month for one year. She was expressing her thanks when she broke down and tears started falling down her face. I was quite taken aback because my first impression of her is that of a strong and hard-willed woman. We learned that her family was asked to leave the evacuation center. Apparently, the school, serving as the evacuation center where she was staying, was going to open for the school year. With no house to return to and no husband to rely on, even the strongest woman or man breaks down.

The figures above are not just numbers but represent different stories of people who are caught in the middle of war. The bakwit or IDPs are real people with real lives. In Mindanao, they are still very much present, struggling day after day and trying to live normal lives after being displaced. May Allah grant them strength and patience to go through the challenges. And may Allah reward them accordingly.