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New Mindanao Chief Offers Truce
By Kazi Mahmood, IslamOnline Correspondent
JAKARTA, Dec. 5 (IslamOnline) - After winning the Autonomous Region for Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) elections last week, Parouk (pronounced Farook) Hussin, Mindanao's new governor, offered a truce to Muslim factions who staged a dramatic hostage takeover a week ago, sources in Manila said on Wednesday.
He also declared he is setting aside his predecessor's grandiose projects in favor of a more down-to-earth approach.
Hussin, a medical doctor of 57, replaces former governor Nur Misuari, currently in jail in Malaysia after a leading a bloody encounter with the Philippines military last month.
Hussin, said to be allied with President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, offered an olive branch on Wednesday to rebels fighting Manila and said he was ready to meet Misuari.
In recent days, Manila has softened its stance on Nur Misuari, asking him to take an offer of freedom if he assists in the current peace process in the southern Philippines.
Misuari faces charges of rebellion in the Philippines following the recent uprising by his supporters.
Soon after his election, Misuari made sweeping pronouncements that he would build an oil refinery, a railway system and a 10-lane highway. None of these dreams was realized, and he was ousted as Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) chairman in July by a group of MNLF officials led by Hussin.
Nur Misuari, as chairman of the MNLF, signed a peace agreement with the government in 1996, which included his selection as the region's governor.
Under his leadership, Mindanao did not achieve what was expected and now the jailed leader is being accused of siphoning millions of U.S. dollars from the office of the governor.
Hussin, on Wednesday, described Muslim Mindanao's problems as "daunting" and the governorship as "a very tough job".
"Our people are hungry. Let us address this first," he told the South China Morning Post as Arroyo swore him in as the new ARMM governor.
The five-province region remains the poorest in the country.
"We have to stabilize the situation," he said, referring to the activities of the Abu Sayyaf group. "We can't stabilize [the region] if there is no development. We can't develop because of the peace and order problem."
"We have to adapt a reconciliatory attitude," he added. He also urged citizens to have patience and to "let the military do their work." He also expressed a willingness to help renegade ex-governor Misuari sort out his troubles "if he reforms".
"We will be conciliatory ... I'll try to find a way to see him if there is a way," Hussin told news agencies, referring to Nur Misuari, who is held in Malaysia for alleged illegal entry.
"We will impress upon him the wisdom of respecting the laws ... and working together in the interest of everybody, the Muslims, our country and the international Islamic community."
The new governor rejected a U.S. offer to deal with the Abu Sayyaf group, which the U.S. has allegedly linked to Saudi exile Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network.
"Our military, our law enforcement agencies are capable to handle the Abu Sayyaf," Hussin said. He was apparently reacting to U.S. President George W. Bush's statement in Washington Tuesday that U.S. troops might be used to carry out strikes outside Afghanistan as part of the expanding U.S.-led "war against terrorism".
"It is unnecessary and it violates the constitution. I don't think the government will allow that," Hussin said when asked if he would agree to U.S. military strikes against the Abu Sayyaf and other groups in this largely Roman Catholic country.
As governor of ARMM, Hussin said his top priority was to end the violence in the southern region, where the bulk of the five million Muslim minority of the country live.
Hussin said his aim was to clear the way for the uplifting of impoverished Muslim communities. "There are no basic services, there is no power, there is no water supply, no infrastructure, no roads, no nothing," he stated.
However, due to the peace process engaged with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which is still in stages of discussions, Hussin's tenure may be shortened.
In the past, the MILF has insisted on fresh elections, specifically conducting a referendum in Muslim Mindanao to allow the Bangsamoro people to vote on self- determination.
Sources said that if the talks between Arroyo and the MILF end successfully, which they expect, they believe Hussin's governorship will end before 2004.
Arroyo herself will face the challenge of fresh elections in 2004 and her chances of being re-elected cannot be gauged as of yet.
Hussin denied being Arroyo's candidate, but said he did not mind working closely with the Philippine leader, who "has been very consistent on her policy pronouncements on Mindanao."
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