Friday, November 16, 2007 Wenceslao: The ‘colorful’ Wahab Akbar By Bong O. Wenceslao Candid Thoughts
TO say that Basilan Rep. Wahab Akbar was the target of the bomb that was detonated inside the Batasang Pambansa complex last Nov. 13 is to be like many others: indulging in the speculation game. Until investigators presents solid evidence, the Akbar-was-the-target theory will remain just that, a theory. So let’s wait until the facts are in.
But Philippine National Police Chief Avelino Razon did state a fact when he said that Akbar’s life was colorful. It was---in almost all aspects, from his politics, the practice of his religion, his past, even his marriage. Reading the profile on the congressman and former governor by the Newsbreak website, one can be swayed to accept Razon’s theory.
Akbar, by politicians’ standards, was still relatively young to die, having been born a Yakan in Lantawan, Basilan on April 16, 1959 (he was 48 when he was killed). His father, Hajji Mutamad Salajin, was a squatter in a logging concession owned by a multinational firm. When security men burned his house and a mosque, Salajin rebelled.
He brought the young Akbar, then 11 years old, with him to the mountains. Salajin would surrender to the government three years later, was given a piece of land and was appointed mayor of Lantawan. In that episode of Akbar’s life seem to be planted the seeds of two decisions he made when he got older: becoming a rebel, then politician.
The young Akbar was arrested in 1979 with other Muslim students when protests against the Marcos dictatorship were starting to build up. He was detained in Bicutan for 40 days, then drifted to Sabah doing odd jobs. In 1982, he left for Syria to study Islamic jurisprudence, a move that served him well when he was a preacher years later in Basilan.
But before returning to the Philippines, Akbar stayed in Syria for five years and left for Libya in 1987 to train as a commando of the Moro National Liberation Front. There, he met Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani, founder of the Abu Sayyaf, during a dahwa (Islamic preaching). Akbar, though, denied links with Janjalani or the Abu Sayyaf.
He said of Janjalani: “He had his own interpretation of Islam, which he might have read in books, but he did not really understand its teachings.” “He really believed in himself. That’s what I did not like in him. I told him, ‘Don’t tell me that you’re better than us, that you’re braver than us, that you know how to fight more than us.’”
Akbar also met Mohammad Jamal Khalifa, brother-in-law of Al Qaeda top gun Osama Bin Laden, in Basilan. Their relationship was short-lived. Khalifa refused to fund the building of a madrasah, although he did gave Akbar money for the hospitalization of his wife and for capital of a bakery. “I don’t actually like him,” Akbar said of Khalifa.
Akbar became Basilan governor in 1998 and was allied with then president Joseph Estrada. He was Basilan’s top man during the days of Abu Sayyaf abductions. In 2000, when bandits kidnapped students and teachers, he vowed: “I swear to God that if any of them (hostages) are harmed, I will kill all members of your (Abu Sayyaf) family.”
Akbar was a fast learner. He became adept at traditional politics, wasting no time building a political dynasty. He married more than 10 times but maintained four wives at a time. He stopped wearing his Muslim garb and shaved his moustache and goatee. He probably would have become a colorful congressman had not a bomb snuffed out his life.
