Understanding the Bangsa Moro Struggle for Self-Determination

Abstract

From the perspective of a globalized world system, the ideal of a multicultural democratic society is often celebrated today as an already realized good, a spontaneous offshoot of the free market and the universal circulation of mass-produced commodities. But the current “war against terrorism” and the debate over the “clash of civilizations” confirm the postmodern interregnum of “undecidable” particularisms belying any consensus on foundations and axioms. Representational differences trump material commonalities. Amid the conflicts of paradigms and world views, however, everyone still acknowledges in actual practice a world “out there,” intractable, tough, and heterogeneous.

When this so-called battle [at Mt. Dajo, Philippines, where U.S. troops slaughtered six hundred Moro men, women, and children] was over, there were certainly not fewer than two hundred wounded savages lying on the field. What became of them? Since not one savage was left alive! The inference seems plain. We cleaned up our four days’ work and made it complete by butchering those helpless people.

—Mark Twain

The working class cannot be indifferent to the most intolerably barbaric oppression [of any nation]…. Even the most inhumane material oppression is not able to provoke such wrathful, fanatical rebellion and rage as… religious or national oppression.

—Rosa Luxemburg