Gov’t-MILF Peace Partly at Hand but Still Remote – Islamic Professor

Dr. Julkipli Wadi, a UP Islamic Studies professor, agrees with MILF chairman Al Haj Murad that peace is “partly at hand” in Mindanao. However, he thinks there is still a long way to go.

BY ALEXANDER MARTIN REMOLLINO
Bulatlat

A professor of Islamic Studies at the University of the Philippines (UP) agrees with Al Haj Murad, chairman of the revolutionary Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that peace in Mindanao is “partly at hand,” but believes there is still very much to be done before it can be attained.

Last May 30, during the opening of the two-day MILF general consultation in Darapanan, Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, Murad had delivered a speech in which he declared: “Today is the day we can tell the Bangsamoro and all peace-loving people of our homeland that just, honorable and lasting peace is partly at hand. Today is the day the next generation of Bangsamoro will remember as the day the MILF and the Philippine government announced to the world at large that it is not impossible to solve seemingly irreconcilable issues as long as negotiating parties approach the table with open mind and sincerity.”

“The key word there is ‘partly,’” said Dr. Julkipli Wadi in an interview with Bulatlat. “Peace is partly at hand, but there is still a long way to go. They have not started to talk about the most crucial issues yet.”

Governance issue

The most crucial issue, according to Wadi, would be the question of governance. That is where the government would have to lay down what it has to offer the MILF, he said.

In the interview, Wadi reiterated what he said in a forum last March that the government has nothing to offer the MILF except the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM). The ARMM – which includes Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Basilan, and Maguindanao – is a product of the 1996 peace agreement between the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the GRP, which sought to end the MNLF’s 27-year armed struggle for a separate state.

During the presidency of Diosdado Macapagal (1961-1965), Sabah, an island near Mindanao to which the Philippines has a historic claim, ended up in the hands of the Malaysian government.

During his first presidential term, Ferdinand Marcos conceived a scheme which involved the recruitment of between 28 and 64 Moro fighters to occupy Sabah. The recruits were summarily executed by their military superiors in 1968, in what is now known as the infamous Jabidah Massacre. According to Moro historian Salah Jubair, this was because they had refused to follow orders.

The Jabidah Massacre triggered widespread outrage among the Moros and led to the formation of the MNLF that same year.

The MNLF entered into a series of negotiations with the GRP, beginning in the 1970s under the Marcos government. In 1996, it signed a “Final Peace Agreement” with the GRP which created the ARMM as a concession to the group.

“The MNLF will definitely not allow the ARMM to be taken from them just like that,” Wadi said. They will make noise and put up some form of resistance.”

Independence

In his speech, Murad summed up the MILF struggle as a fight for “freedom from want, freedom from religious persecution, freedom from political and economic bondage.”

“After decades of unrelenting struggle, our flickering hope for a just and comprehensive political solution to the Bangsamoro problem is rekindled,” Murad said. “Our legitimate aspiration for a rightful place in our society has once again assumed its proper shape. Our life-long dream to establish and develop our homeland as a permanent legacy to the next generation of Bangsamoro people, and the generation after that, which they can call their own, will soon insha’Allah become a reality.”

Asked why there was no mention of independence in Murad’s speech even as the MILF is known to be fighting for a separate Islamic state, Wadi said: “That is part of the MILF’s strategy. They don’t want to be jeopardizing the peace negotiations at a time when things are moving with relative ease. So as far as they’re concerned, you don’t go around saying such sensitive words as ‘independence’ at this point.”

The GRP is known to prefer a solution to the Mindanao problem that falls within the ambit of the present Constitution.

Wadi however also described Murad as “more of a modernist” compared to the late MILF founding chairman Dr. Salamat Hashim. “When you say ‘modernist,’” Wadi explained, “you are talking about someone who is more open to certain compromises.”

This could pose a problem in the later stages of the peace talks, Wadi said, because there is a section within the MILF which he described as “more idealistic in pursuing the struggle.” The elements within this section, Wadi said, may later be a source of dissent and even go as far as allying themselves with the MNLF, who he said could be expected to defend their gains from the 1996 peace agreement when the negotiations reach the critical points.

U.S. involvement

Asked what reason the U.S. may have for its involvement in the GRP-MILF peace negotiations, Wadi said that Mindanao is strategic for the U.S. both economically and militarily.

The 200,000-ha. Liguasan Marsh straddling North Cotabato, Maguindanao and Sultan Kudarat, covered by the MILF’s area of operations, contains oil reserves, according to the Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC).

Meanwhile, the Stratfor, a Texas-based think tank, reported in late 2003 that the U.S. had begun building a base in Sarangani Bay near General Santos City in South Cotabato. According to the report, the facility would be “an operations and logistics base and would be a springboard for U.S. military power in Southeast Asia.”

The U.S. is involved in the GRP-MILF peace talks in a “facilitating” capacity through the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP), a federal institution created by the U.S. Congress “to promote the prevention, management, and peaceful resolution of international conflicts.” The USIP receives a regular budget from the U.S. government, and its board of directors is appointed by the U.S. president and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

MILF

The MILF was formed in 1978, when a group led by Dr. Salamat Hashim broke away from the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) led by Nur Misuari.

That year, the MNLF, which had been fighting for an independent state in Mindanao, signed an agreement with the Marcos government in Tripoli, Libya which provided for a grant of autonomy to Muslim Mindanao. The Marcos government had insisted that a plebiscite be held to settle the territories of the autonomous government. The MNLF refused to recognize the results of the plebiscite and negotiations with the GRP bogged down.

The MILF was formed from the group that broke away from the MNLF. It has been fighting for an Islamic state in Mindanao. Peace negotiations between the GRP and the MILF began in 1996, under the administration of then President Fidel V. Ramos. Bulatlat

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