MILF: Editorial -- Flipside of frustration

Editorial posted to the MILF Website (Mar 3): Editorial: Flipside of frustration

The Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) did not pass Congress and consequently there is frustration all over. This make it double whammy for the MILF and those who supported the BBL and the peace process in general. To this day, they are still reeling from it. The truth is that the MILF is hard-pressed to adopt a more hard-line stance in reaction to the BBL fiasco. In fact, it is practically battered from all sides, especially its negotiating peace panel. But the maturity, experience, and wisdom of the MILF leadership have prevailed over the sudden upsurge of emotions, which is natural and a valid feeling. Any member or official of the MILF who is not offended by the non-passage of the BBL does not deserve to be part of it.

Since its inception in 1977, the MILF has always been faced by so many similar situations in the past, which were more trying if not more dangerous. In most cases, however, it emerged on top of them and wiser. It is aware that any decision based on a sudden outburst of emotion or indignation will always end regrettably.

As always, decision should be guided by the basic principles of which the organization is founded upon and on strategic considerations. Tactical decision of weighing the immediate costs and benefits always occupies second fiddle.  This is the most natural order.

Be this as it may, if there is threat in frustration, but in the flipside, there is also an opportunity! In a span of less than a week, MILF Chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim met two Muslim world leaders in a bid to ensure that the search for the peaceful resolution of the conflict in Mindanao would proceed despite the setback created by the abortion of the BBL. Murad met Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak last February 25 in Kuala Lumpur and Secretary General Iyad Ameen Madani of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on February 28. With the latter, they discussed the need to strengthen the Bangsamoro Coordination Forum (BCF) wherein all the Moro liberation fronts would converge, alongside the stress on the pursuit of peace in Mindanao. The MILF also called on the international community to help capacitate and strengthen the Bangsamoro people and, in particular, the MILF, in their democratic assertions of their right to self-determination. If the BBL did not pass Congress, because those supporting it, including the MILF, are not as powerful as those opposing it.

But as of date, the peace and order situation in many parts of Mindanao has not yet stabilized completely. But the MILF is not involved in them. It continues to uphold firmly the need to pursue the peace process and the maintenance of the ceasefire on the ground. These pockets of skirmishes involved the other armed groups namely, the Abu Sayyaf and the so-called Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement (BIFM).

Complicating the situation is the rise of extremism, mainly fuelled by the common belief that government has always adopted deceptive policies vis-a-vis Moros and the influence of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), is clearly visible especially among the young generations, who are naturally idealistic, adventurous, and bold and daring. Skirmishes involving them have already taken place recently in Palembang in Sultan Kudarat, and Butig in Lanao del Sur.

The truth is that as long as there is no just and genuine solution to the conflict in Mindanao, there will always be unpeace in this region. On the part of the MILF, we will always ask and tell the government to comply with its obligation by passing a law faithful to the Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro (FAB) and the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB).

http://www.luwaran.com/index.php/editorial/23-1st-issue-1-7/599-flipside-of-frustration