Colleague Patricio claims that militant Islamist group the Jemaah Islamiyah stand to gain if the MILF-GRP peace talks fail.
With all due respect, Pat, that is a large dollop of pure, unadulterated, steaming-hot BS.
You argue that if the MILF loses its credibility by not making Bangsamorostan a reality, its fighters will turn to extremism, using the MNLF’s “failure” as a model.
You argue that when the MILF will collapse due to its credibility loss, new extremist-slash-secessionist groups will gain dominance, yet again using the MNLF’s “failure” as a model, pointing to the surge in strength of the Abu Sayyaf.
I believe you are wrong.
Salamat Hashim and his merry men formed the MILF, breaking away from the MNLF when the MNLF decided to talk peace with the Republic. The MILF did not want anything to do with the ARMM, ergo being part of the problem — the problem, mind, not the solution — that is peace and stability in Mindanao.
Abdujarak Janjalani and his merry band of ASG bandits sow fear via bombs and bullets, leaving dead bodies wherever they operate, in their claimed goal to establish an Islamic state across Southeast Asia. Their brothers-in-arms Jemaah Islamiyah makes body bags a consumer commodity wherever they operate, in their attempts to forge a Daulah Islamiyah across Southeast Asia. Need I remind you how terrorism is defined?
Have you forgotten the links between the Jemaah Islamiyah, the Abu Sayyaf, and dead bodies in Mindanao and elsewhere?
Have you forgotten Barangay Ginanta, Tipo-Tipo, Basilan, July 10, 2007? Have you forgotten the fallen, ten of them mutilated? Have you forgotten that MILF and the Abu Sayyaf had banded together to ambush the Marines then?
These groups have been comrades and allies for the longest time. To give them their own state, to vest them with plenipotentiary powers equal to that of the Republic, to give them the resources with which to turn plowshares into swords — this is but one of the reasons why I oppose the MOA-AD.
We have a land where peace was intended to be be brought, and that is the ARMM; as it is, and without anything else. Three plebiscites have come and gone, and the answers of the people have not changed. Real peace in Mindanao will come, Pat, only if we allow its people to give it a chance. We have not yet maximized the potential of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao; instead, the government has allowed the ARMM to flounder while it gets cozy with breakaway groups, for presumably a little more than thirty silver pieces. Instead of aiding ARMM to flourish and aiding in its defense by crushing banditry and terrorism, we are instead selling out our previous pacts of peace.
That the carrion crows are on their way is clear; war is coming. Though painful, sometimes to wage peace we must fight a war to get it. Let us not desecrate the memory of the honored dead by a false peace bought through honeyed lies.
The Filipino people — all of us, whether Christian, Muslim, lumad, or otherwise — deserve no less than a united Republic.
Popularity: 1% [?]
oh dammit, i need to work on this post.
Exactly my thoughts.
Hi jester,
Well, probabilities are probabilities. The possibilities of the JI winning this is also not far-fetched.
As I’ve said in previous comments in other posts regarding the Bangsamoro, my entries are not justifications. They’re just reflections of prevailing statements from the government as well as the MILF. Now, this entry is actually the one being brandied about by the US government and peace advocates.
Everybody seems to oppose the MOA for either the wrong reasons or paranoia. It seems to me (and this is my personal take already), that we’re thinking parochially here.
What’s the probability of extremist thinking seeping into the young fighters of the MILF? BIG. Why? Because it’s already happening and this, my friend, is NOT an assumption. As early as January, the leaders of the MILF has been saying this all along–the reason why they want a deal to push thru because they are slowly losing the young fighters to extremism. The US State department has studied this and found this to be the real situation there in Mindanao.
It’s good to have these “nationalist” feelings–like having this thought of opposing the “dismemberment” of the country. Yet, this issue goes beyond the Philippines. The risk of regional security being affected by this issue is there. And we should not be blinded by our naked hatred against Gloria, no.
I remember all the things you said–the Tipo-Tipo Basilan incident, etc. But, let me pose you a question though–what’s the alternative that these groups will agree with? You said we have’nt really exploited the full potential of the ARMM. We did already. And Mindanao, in fact the whole of ARMM, remains impoverished. If we consider co-existence, we should at least give them some slice of the economic pie for people to eat. However, for the past few years, we failed.
I hope you’re not living in ARMM and not with those who suffer from poverty. Poverty is slowly dehumanizing the Bangsamoro People. And this is something they want to be freed from. Because if they don”t get freed from this, they will turn into another direction which we, armchair revolutionaries, would find very hard to extricate ourselves from.
But Patricio, a BJE won’t bring peace. And it won’t give you an assurance that the MILF would not stop their secessionist move, or that it won’t lose fighters to extremism.
And why do we have to cave in top the MILF’s demands if we can just annihilate them, for crying out loud!
J, the point is, i don’t think we can annihilate what they stand for. The key to peace with unity is to incorporate Bangsamoro identity as part of Filipino identity. If not enough on both sides (‘Filipino’ and ‘Bangsamoro’) buy into that concept, then we’re best going off our separate ways.
cvj: clearly, building a juridical entity would only alienate the Bangsamoro identity from that of the Filipino identity. We can anihilate what the MILF stands for. The high voter turn out in the ARMM elections is proof of this. It means the Filipino Muslims in the South supports the ARMM and the democratic process, as opposed to the armed struggle of the MILF, as their tool of expression of their sentiments. Only the MILF believes in what the MILF stands for. Hence, we can annihilate it.
J, would it that you were right, but i don’t think that’s the case. I believe that the MILF is more than a KFR-gang in that it has a genuine support base as they represent genuine aspirations for self-rule under an Islamic state. The latter cannot be ‘annihilated’ by non-Muslims. Only the Muslim moderates can do that, if at all.
cvj,
The brother of Vice Gov. Manny Pinol, Cong. Pinol asked the rhetorical question today: Who made the MILF the representatives of the Bangsamoro people? What about the Moro politicins and the MNLF he asked. And of course he is right.
Now I concede to you that you cannot ‘annihilate what the MILF stands for.’ Just like the CPP’s ideology though, that does not make it legitimate. it is not enough to say they represent some genuine aspirations among the Bangsamoro. But there is this problem of all sorts of other folks that have even more legitimate a claim to representing the Moros.
if you insist on taking away their guns and their ability to defy the govt, then they would become just like everyone else in the polity and must contend with others in the normal, peaceful democratic way.
So it is not their ‘beliefs’ we are objecting to, but their methods in trying to achieve their goals.
DDJB, whether or not the MILF represents the Bangsamoro people cannot be settled via a rhetorical question by non-Muslims. It’s a genuine question that needs to be answered empirically if we want to end the insurgency and no, i don’t think the ARMM elections settle that question.
There are bloggers who are against the MILF who seem to want them to be some sort of fringe group, but how can they be so sure that this is not just wishful thinking on their part? What are the sources of the MILF’s strength? Who support them (here and abroad)? How popular is their cause among the ARMM and surrounding regions? How do we convince the Bangsamoro’s to buy into the idea of a Filipino nation? How to convince the good guys within the MILF of our good faith? How can we ensure our side does have good faith?
I do agree that we should do everything to prevent the MILF from reaching a strategic stalemate (a-la Tamil tigers) with the Philippine Military but genocide, vigilante groups and kidnap and death squads (protected by the HSA) are counterproductive. So the focus on ‘taking away their guns’ by promoting the above is a nonstarter to me.
As for your statement…
… have you forgotten that you’re against an Islamic theocracy?
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