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EDITORIAL
BANGSAMORO YOUTH CORNER
08 October 2012
HISTORICAL AND
"HUMAN WRONG" OF PHILIPPINE COLONIALISM:
HOW NOT TO RESPECT HISTORIC-HUMAN RIGHTS OF
BANGSAMORO AND CHINA?
By RRayhanR
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Map of China, South China Sea and the Sulu
Sea
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Given the current dispute between
Philippines and China over actual
ownership of the islands in South China
Sea and the unending Philippines-Bangsamoro
war in Filipino-occupied, there are two
fundamental questions that need crystal
clarification, to wit:
Firstly, can Philippines respect the
historical and human rights of the
colonized Bangsamoro people and the
peace-loving Chinese people?
Secondly, can the Luzon-based Filipino
colonizers cease to perpetrate injustice
against the historically-sovereign Moro
Nation (Bangsamoro) and now emerging
super power China?
It is often said that the
Spanish-conceptualized Catholic Filipino
nation as an American-inspired
"fabricated Philippine State" only in
July 5, 1946 or a proclaimed "Philippine
Republic" in Cavite on June 12, 1898 can
never consider history an "ally", but
always an "enemy". This truism is
validated by its genocidal war today
with the colonized Bangsamoro people for
more than four decades after the immoral
arbitrary annexation of the Moro Nation
in 1946 courtesy of the 1935 Philippine
Commonwealth National Assembly
Legislative Act no. 4197 otherwise known
as the draconian Quirino-Recto
Colonization Act.
This is also proven true in its present dispute
with China over the group of islands located in
South China Sea ("West Philippine Sea" shrewdly
renamed recently by Manila government) that the
Chinese government has categorically claimed
owning based on historical rights, insisting
that the Huanyan islands case is never a
disputed issue because
historical ownership rests on China by moral and
human rights.
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Clearly, Philippine colonialism can never show
any historical precedent or antecedent that the
Bangsamoro homeland of Mindanao, Sulu and
Palawan (MINSUPALA) was ever a part and parcel
of the "Philippine Republic" proclaimed by
General Emilio Aguinaldo in Kawit, Cavite on
June 12, 1898. Neither was the Moro Nation and
the Bangsamoro people a willing "member" of the
American-manufactured "Republic of the
Philippines" on July 4, 1946 thanks to Filipino
and American colonial conspiracy.
WHY IS PHILIPPINE COLONIALISM NOT RESPECTING
HISTORICAL AND HUMAN RIGHTS OF BANGSAMORO AND
CHINA?
It is vividly recorded in history that the
Mindanao-based Sultanate of Sulu ("Sultanate of
Sulu and North Borneo" later in 1759)
sovereignty was established way back in 1450 and
followed in later years by the Sultanate of
Maguindanao and Sultanate Buayan in Cotabato and
the apat na pangampong district in Lanao. The
Mindanao Sultanate government was promulgated
way advance 448 years before the initial
proclamation of the so-called Philippine
Republic in 1898.
In history, the sovereign and independent
Sultanate Government of the Muslim natives was
recognized by no less than China, the oldest
cradle and most flourishing civilization in
Asia, the Madjapahit Empire (Indonesia today),
Brunei, Malaysia and Western countries, such as
Great Britain, Portugal, Dutch, and as well as
Middle Eastern nations, like Muslim Arabia (Makkah),
Hadramauth (Yemen) and Turkey.
Thus, the historical antecedents of the Mindanao
Sultanate suzerainty are closely related to
China. The two historical Asian independent
nations had conducted ever since peaceful and
friendly liaison, enjoying mutual cordial
commercial and diplomatic intercourse. The
Chinese merchants visiting Mindanao from all
over China have always respect and trust for the
Muslim and Animist native inhabitants of
Mindanao, Sulu and Palawan, contributing
historically to the close linkage of the two
Asian equal trading partners.
In fact, the introduction of Islam to Mindanao
can also be credited to China, which served
since time immemorial a wide base marketing
centre for the enterprising business merchants
from the Middle East, particularly Makkah of
early Muhammadan Arabia and Hadramauth (Yemen)
during the earliest period of the pivotal impact
of Islam in the Arab peninsula.
From China, Arabian Muslim traders, who were
also learned and knowledgeable in Islamic dawah (propagation),
continued travelling on board Chinese vessels to
Sulu in late 1200s, preaching Islam to the
Tausug natives, and gradually in later years to
the Maguindanao, Iranun and Maranaw natives of
mainland Mindanao, particularly Cotabato and
Lanao.
The historical corner stone of the pleasant and
warm relationship between the Mindanao Sultanate
sovereignty and China is attested by the famous
Poon Tau Kong Chinese temple built in the
metropolis town of the island of Jolo near the
biggest Islamic mosque and the introduction of
varied Chinese influence and traits that abound
in the early Moro Nation, including
intermarriage between Chinese nationals with
native inhabitants. Thus, the various
descendants of Mindanaoan--Chinese blood until
today have attested to the peaceful and
harmonious co-existence of the people of the
early Moro Nation and China.
Unfortunately, the ancient sacred Chinese temple
and the historic Tulay mosque in the center of
Jolo were burned and razed to the ground in 1974
when the colonial Armed Forces of the
Philippines (AFP) fighter jet planes, helicopter
gunships and naval battle ships bombarded
indiscriminately the capital town. The
historically-noted February 7-8, 1974 "Battle of
Jolo" between the MNLF-Bangsamoro freedom
fighters and the AFP occupation forces that
Philippine colonialism under the murderous
Marcos regime tried hard to suppress and to hide
from local and global media coverage led to the
massive burning of almost the entire civilian
houses and commercial buildings. The heavy
bombardment and burning of the capital town of
Jolo resulted in the mass killing of more than
20,000 innocent and helpless Muslim civilians,
including children, women and aged, and
countless personal material losses
Toward this single atrocity and many more
injustices perpetrated by Philippine colonialism
against the colonized and oppressed Bangsamoro
people in history marking the colonial genocidal
war in Mindanao, no regional and global human
rights centre have ever investigated the grave
abuses of the Philippine government. The
so-called Philippine Human Rights Commission has
existed only to hide the "human wrongs"
committed by Philippine colonialism against the
colonized, oppressed and brutalized Muslim and
Indigenous peoples of the Bangsamoro homeland.
Truth to tell, during the reign of Sulu Sultan
Badar ud-Din and while paying China a state
visit, he appealed to the Chinese Emperor to
consider recognizing the Sultanate domain of
Sulu as a direct integral province of China.
However, the Chinese Emperor declined the
request as not necessary since the two nations
have a strong diplomatic and commercial
relationship based on mutual trust and respect
for each other's sovereignty and independence.
The refusal of the Chinese Emperor to
annexation, although voluntary, of the early
Sultanate dominion as part and member of China
would only show that the Asian dominant nation
has always believed on peace and harmony with
its neighbors. China has always valued peace
rather than war in order not to create tensions
and animosities that lead to mass suffering,
demographic division and physical devastation
triggered by other foreign exploitative
war-monger nations, like the tumultuous events
that happened to Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia,
Philippines and Bangsamoro.
On this historical reality, the Moro Nation and
China should not be convinced by Philippine
colonialism to ignore and to forget the moral
lessons of history. In as much as China has all
the historical rights to uphold its moral
obligation and responsibility to the islands in
South China that Philippine colonialism is
eagle-eyed to land-grab similar to Mindanao, the
Bangsamoro people, waging now a freedom struggle
for more than 40 years against "Imperial
Manila", have also the historical rights and
moral ground to continue their noble struggle to
decolonize their ancestral homeland.
In the final analysis, although presently under
colonization and occupation by Philippine
colonialism, the oppressed Bangsamoro people of
Mindanao can only call upon China to stand on
solid historical ground. The Philippines may
have succeeded in the past with American support
in land-grabbing the Moro Nation by using the
law of the jungle that "might is right"
disguised as "rule of law" to weaken fundamental
rights and to erase historical rights, but this
legal jargon of duplicity and trickery should
serve a historical lesson to China to be
steadfast to protect its substantial historical
and human rights and ancient national interest.
The Bangsamoro and Chinese peoples of Asia
should always eye history as an asset and a
foundation of truth, not an "enemy" of a
fictitious colonial state like the Philippines.
-rrr/bfs
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