Wednesday, April 30, 2008 Arinday: Danger stalks the GRP-MILF 'peace talks' By G.H. Arinday Jr. Sunfare
IT IS of great concern to all of us when talks about peace in Mindanao are being discussed, and the hope of achieving such peace is in everyone's heart and mind-except for some very few!
However, there is more than meets the eye with the sudden announcement from Kuala Lumpur through Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak that its component team monitoring the peace negotiations and acting as peacekeeping force would commence the contemplated phrased withdrawal either in August or September.
Without giving any reason for such contemplated move by the Malaysian government, the event caused various reactions and speculations among those fully informed of the status of the suspended peace parley between the GRP and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). This is the portent of things to come.
One disturbing revelation is that the Malaysian monitoring team, as one of the facilitators, has manifestly favored the MILF while the talks were being done that full autonomy be given to the rebels, which is in direct contrast to the Libyan-brokered peace talks between the GRP and Nur Misuari's Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) embodied in the 1996 Tripoli Agreement. Libya, under Colonel Muamar Ghadaffy, favored only partial autonomy to the MNLF.
Political observers immediately saw some "hidden agenda" in the action taken by the Malaysian government. Ilocos Norte Representative Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr., following his father's unusually bold action, promised to file in Congress a resolution reviving the Philippines' claim of Sabah as part of the country's territory premised on the claim of the heirs of the Sultanate of Sulu to cede the former British Borneo to the republic.
In geo-politics, some facts are hardly obscure exemplified by the manifest prejudice of the Malaysian monitoring team against the MNLF.
Now, is it any wonder that former MNLF chair Nur Misuari was freed on bail guaranteed by the Libyan embassy-that he would not jump bail of the rebellion indictment. On the other hand, is the Malaysian government more inclined to attend to its domestic affairs in the face of the volatile ethnic or racial unrest, which may threaten the stability of the present leadership?
Southeast Asia, a region of vast resources, profound different "religion-political" passions, crises now and then of different dimensions, and underpinnings of power struggle subtly played by the world powers, notably China, Japan, India and the United States could be the flashpoint of the pursuit for regional dominance and its inevitable catastrophic consequence.
The whole region, including the Pacific Area, could be the theater where potency of new weapons of mass destructions and the strategy of bin Laden's surrogates to expand its fundamentalism could be tested. The presence of Jemaah Islamiyah and its components like the Abu Sayyaf and the jihads in southern Thailand bordering Malaysia is indicative of the volatility of the Southeast Asian situations.
The rebellion in Mindanao cannot be considered as an isolated case as the MILF under the late Hashim Salamat has empirically shown the MILF's international connection with the high-profiled Islamic jihads.
While the government has been diplomatically cautious in dealing with countries surreptitiously giving aid to the Moro rebels, yet at the same time has been adept in handling diplomatic relations with the Middle East countries like Iran and Syria, which are sworn enemies of the US.
Our resolve is to strengthen the southern frontiers of the archipelago in relation to our baselines in the troubled wars of the Spratlys group of islands-a key point in the vast China Sea.
It cannot be hidden from the fact that Malaysia is still harboring such "disturbed" feelings about the "Jabidah affair" during the Marcos regime when some Muslim recruits for the secret "Sabah Affair" dramatically vulgarized the intended mission to establish the "cells" in Sabah preparatory to eventual wholesale military action.
The strained relationship between the Philippines and Malaysia "cooled off" after a long period of diplomatic face-offs with the friendly countries of both parties intervening to maintain peace in the region.
The recent demonstration in Jolo, Sulu, seeking independence for the small but volatile island province, is just the tip of the iceberg, to use the worn-out cliché.
Of several crises we have at hand, the Mindanao rebellion could not be taken for granted, as it would precede the "balkanization" of the country in a slow but deadly process.
