Pagpati'ut - Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue

archipelago remains scarce.
This research does not claim to be a trail-blazing work; instead, it offers
to explore the dynamic play of history, institutions, interpretations, and
governance in Sulu. In doing so, it attempts to bring to fore positive
interventions initiated by community leaders and members, with the endview
of institutionalizing if not strengthening such efforts. It is hoped that
such a study may in fact encourage other similar and more comprehensive
studies.
The study also offers to determine factors for community resilience that
can be replicated in similar challenging environments.
I N T R O D U C T I O N & C O N T E X T
This is an exploratory study that is informed by the works of Ted Gurr 3 , one
of the pioneers in studying political violence.
state-building interests versus communal interests. More accurately, the
State has, for more than a century, attempted to impose its interest over
a communal group, the Moros. Various modes have been utilized, from
soft power (e.g. education and cultural imposition), to hard power (e.g.
laws and policies meant to break the resolve of the Moros). But at the
same time that it attempts to impose, it is also resists the various forms of
articulation of the Moros of their interests.
The communal group, on the other hand, continuously resists the efforts of
the state to impose state-building interests; in the process, the Moros also
attempt to articulate their communal interest – this articulation ranges from
legal, to extra-legal, to armed means.
State
building
interest
Communal
interest
3 Gurr, Ted Robert. 1993. Minorities at Risk. A Global View of Ethnopolitical Conflicts.
Washington: US Institute of Peace Press; and Gurr, Ted. 1974. Why Men Rebel. New Jersey:
Princeton University Press
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