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Federation Will Not Solve Mindanao Problems: Experts
By
Kazi Mahmood, IOL Southeast Asia Correspondent
KUALA
LUMPUR, August 13 (IslamOnline.net) - Federation will not solve the
problems in Mindanao because it does not address the aspirations of
the Bangsamoro people for freedom and independence, a number of
experts involved in the drive for a free and independent Muslim
Mindanao told IslamOnline.net on Wednesday, August 13.
Professor
Abhou Syed Lingga and Maulana M. Alonto, two leading figures in the
Bangsamoro Consultative Assembly, said the idea of a federation does
not respond to the wishes of Muslims in the South of the largely
Christian nation.
Muslims
won their right to self determination when Manila agreed to that in
the peace treaty signed in 2001 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
This
cannot be challenged though federalism could be one of the options of
the Bangsamoro in a referendum, experts said.
“A
confederation too can be considered. They (Philippines government)
should recognize first the independence of the Bangsamoro people and
then we confederate,” Professor Abhou Syed, Institute of Bangsamoro
Studies Executive Director suggested in an exclusive to IOL.
The
Idea of a federation was proposed by Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr.,
who told IOL recently that the Filipino government should talk about a
federated
state with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
Pimentel
also suggested that there was a deep swelling ground support among the
Muslims in Mindanao in favor of a federation of Bangsamoro state
within the Philippines Republic.
With
the stated objective of Pimentel’s federalism, what comes to the
mind of the Bangsamoro is that federalism is being proposed to solve
the “Filipino” problems with consequential effect of denying the
Bangsamoro people their right to self-determination, said Abhou Syed.
Both
Alonto and Professor Lingga say that no one should forget that the
fundamental issue that has to be addressed is the political
relationship between the Bangsamoro people and the Philippine
government.
For
more than six centuries the Bangsamoro people enjoyed their
independence and it is only in the last five and a half decades that
they were being colonized, they said.
Maulana
Alonto, editor of the “Mindanao Crescent” weekly, says as
Muslims the Bangsamoro people believe that only an Islamic State is
the answer to their problem.
“As
to the Bangsamoro people, what we are saying is the people
themselves should be consulted in a popular referendum to be conducted
by the UN to determine once and for all what they want - whether full
independence or federation,” says Maulana.
He
cited a strong tendency among the Filipinos to change the country's
present political set-up to federalism, but added that technically
speaking there is a problem.
“Federalism
presupposes the existence of independent states or semi-independent
states that would agree to federate among themselves. This was the
case of the original 13 states in America, which, after their
independence from Great Britain, formed the federal union called the
United States of America,” he stressed.
“This
was also the case of the defunct Union of Soviet Socialist
Republics. Malaysia had the same experience with the different
sultanates that later on formed the Malaysian federation,” Maulana
explained.
Many
countries, as a matter of fact, which today have adopted the federal
system went through the same political process.
The
Philippines, in contrast, has no independent states that would form a
federal system of governance.
“Even
then, if federation with the Philippines is contemplated on, the
Bangsamoro people first have to have their independence back before
any federation is possible,” Maulana said.
“Our
stand remains firm: there should be a U.N.-supervised referendum
first in the Bangsamoro homeland,” he told IOL.
MILF
Blueprint
Professor
Lingga added that the MILF will not comment on any proposal like the
federation made by Manila because it has own proposal which only very
few have seen.
That
proposal was approved by Shiekh Salamat Hashim as early as January of
this year.
Among
the few to have seen the proposal is Malaysia’s Premier Mahathir
Mohamad, who approved of it, IOL learned in early July.
It
is thought that even President Arroyo Macapagal of the Philippines has
not seen the proposal drafted by the MILF, which included a total
revamp of the Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (ARMM).
The
proposal also focuses on several issues that the Filipino government
has not touched upon in recent rounds of peace talks, which include
reconstruction and development of the Bangsamoro lands and the role
Muslim countries and investors, are to play in such a reconstruction
program.
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