Not about religion

The synchronization of ARMM elections with national and local elections is an issue beyond religion and region. One side says that synchronization, as recently approved by Congress, is in effect a decision made by people who are not from the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, not by the people of the region.

Sen. Joker Arroyo said that “all the 23 senators are Christians and that the Christian majority should not impose something on the Muslim minority.”
This ethnocentric statement incites religious hatred between Christians and Muslims. In effect, Senator Arroyo is calling for the Muslims to reject the legitimacy of the Senate on the basis of its members’ religious affiliation. The “us versus them” attitude is the world’s most effective hindrance to unity, dividing dreams and principles.

In the truest sense of cross-cultural understanding, those who try to promote a deeper understanding of the disparity between Christians and Muslims are the very ones who are actually promoting discrimination. Church and State, religion and government policy—these are like oil and water. I, myself, am a product of Muslim-Christian love, and I never make it an issue to argue about the perspective of religious disparity.

Are Arroyo and his ilk suggesting that not until the majority of its members are Muslim can Congress legislate laws for the ARMM? The two organic acts of the ARMM and the eight election postponement laws in the past, all of these underwent the legislative process—the same process that the ARMM elections synchronization bill underwent.

The argument that the synchronization of ARMM elections will be a precedent has no basis. The ARMM is the only region in the Philippines that has desynchronized elections.

The Senate Committee Report on Local Government noted that “Filipino Muslims have already gained the exercise of their rights to suffrage and self-determination. They have already achieved, at least, partially their autonomy. We must not reverse that process. We must not accompany the light of the ‘Arab Spring’ of 2011 with the darkness of a cold winter for ARMM.”

I beg to disagree. The statement that Filipino Muslims have already been exercising their right to suffrage and self-determination is framed by a rhetorical device called slanting. The two points should not be combined in one sentence. While all qualified voters of the Philippines, regardless of their religion can vote, there is still a long, winding road ahead for the Bangsamoro right to self-determination.

That’s why the synchronization of ARMM elections is beyond religion and region.

—NORKHALILA MAE B. MAMBUAY-CAMPONG,
[email protected]