MNLF's mysterious, arrogant leadership (Part 1)

Column  from the New Straits Times (Mar 27): Part 1: MNLF's mysterious, arrogant leadership

FREEDOM FOR MORO PEOPLE: In this first of a two-part series, Dr Paridah Abd Samad traces the emergence of the Moro National Liberation Front

THE emergence of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) saw increased awareness of Muslim youth and student activists and they asserted their demand for better treatment of the Moro people.

Nur Misuari, who became chairman of MNLF, was an officer of the Kabataang Makabayan (Patriotic Youth), a radical student group in Manila which applied a Marxist analysis to the Philippine situation and advocated a revolutionary struggle against feudalism, capitalism and imperialism.

Misuari completed his education with an academic scholarship at the University of the Philippines. He became a lecturer of political science at the university and was also a lecturer at the Mindanao State University.

In the 1960s, the Mindanao Independence Movement (MIM) was established which aimed to organise an independent state in southern Philippines. In 1969, MIM leaders formed the MNLF, the military component of the secessionist movement headed by Misuari, that sought political reforms from the Philippine government.

As the MNLF was formed by a group of young secular-educated Moros, they, like Misuari, wanted to dissociate the Front from the traditional aristocratic elite whose leadership was viewed as feudal.

They agreed to a resolution that the Moros would strive for "a federal state" by attempting to pursue their struggle through legal channels. The rift between the younger generation of MNLF and traditional aristocratic leadership groups finally came into the open.

Misuari and his group moved to Sabah and then to Tripoli in which time the MNLF was already at war with government forces. At the same time, it exerted its efforts to gain recognition from the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC). In a way, the MNLF was viewed by repressed Muslims, who needed a front as instrument to fight the encroachment of the Filipino Christians, as a vehicle of jihad.

In spite of this, the Tripoli Agreement, signed on Dec 23, 1976, was an agreement between the Philippine government and the MNLF, with the participation of the OIC. In 1975, the OIC facilitated a meeting between the Philippine government and the MNLF in Jeddah to negotiate for autonomy.

According to the agreement, full autonomy shall be given to the thirteen provinces, namely Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte, Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Basilan, Davao del Sur, South Cotabato, North Cotabato, Maguindanao, Sultan Kudarat, Lanao del Sur, Lanao del Norte, and Palawan. Included in the agreement were nine cities and all the villages situated within the mentioned provinces.

The Tripoli Agreement was signed after the MNLF had given up its demand for independence and after President Ferdinand Marcos had promised to grant full autonomy to the Muslim Filipinos in the southern islands as provided under the agreement. However, Marcos did not fulfil his promise.

The breakdown of the Tripoli Agreement shook the credibility of the MNLF, allowing the cleavage which had always existed within the Front to emerge.

Salamat Hashim's group was first to break away from the mainstream MNLF. He attempted to take over the chairmanship of the MNLF by challenging Misuari at a meeting in Mecca in December 1977.

Misuari refused to recognise the election which resulted in favour of Salamat as chairman. He discredited Salamat as incompetent and insubordinate and accused him of treachery against the MNLF.

In his letter to the secretary-general of the OIC, Dr Amadou Karim Gaye, Salamat gave the following reasons for the takeover: "Mr Misuari, who assumed the MNLF Central Committee chairmanship, plugged the MNLF in a deep leadership crisis, due to multi-various reasons among which are:

"FIRSTLY, the MNLF was being manipulated away from Islamic basis, methodologies and objective and fast evolving towards Marxist-Maoist orientations.

"SECONDLY, instead of evolving towards harmonised, unified and collective leadership, the Central Committee has evolved into a mysterious, exclusive, secretive and monolithic body, whose policies, plans and decisions and disposition, political, financial and/or strategic, became an exclusive preserve of Misuari.

"THIRDLY, this mysterious, exclusive, and arrogant nature of the MNLF leadership resulted into confusion, suspicion and disappointments among the members in the field resulting in the loss to the cause of a great number of fighters."

As the military resistance to the Marcos government did not produce autonomy for the Moro people, Misuari departed to Saudi Arabia in exile. He returned to the Philippines after Marcos was removed from office during the People Power Revolution in 1986.

President Corazon Aquino, who replaced Marcos and the mother of the President Benigno Aquino III, had shown her strong desire to solve the problems of the Muslims as part of the government's effort to unify the nation. A preliminary peace discussion was held in Jolo in September 1986 between Aquino and Misuari as chairman of the MNLF.

A joint statement was issued by the MNLF and the Philippine government for a proposal to be submitted by the MNLF on the mechanism and details of the MNLF demand.

The proposal, known as "MNLF Panel Proposal for the Grant of Full Autonomy to Mindanao, Basilan, Sulu, Palawan and Tawi-Tawi submitted to the Philippine Government Panel in the RP-MNLF Talks Pursuant to the Jeddah Accord of January 3, 1987", was submitted on Feb 20, 1987.

The proposal, which demanded an autonomous region stretching from Tawi-Tawi to Sulu to Basilan, had received opposition from groups as diverse as the Christian populace and the military.

In Part II tomorrow: Further rejection makes MNLF fighters restive

http://www.nst.com.my/opinion/columnist/mnlf-s-mysterious-arrogant-leadership-1.242501