Wednesday, August 20, 2008 Speak out: A Muslim state can never be stable By Jess Kangleon Faller
THERE is only one Philippines and it is the only country we have.
An act claiming that a part of the Philippines is a Muslim or Christian country is naked pretension and anti-Filipino.
This country is neither for the Christian, Muslim or any other religious denomination.
This country belongs solely and exclusively to Filipinos, whose ancestors consecrated their lives for this country to evolve among the civilized countries of the world.
It is therefore painful and ironic that no less than the present leadership of our government, whom we entrust the task of preserving the sovereignty and protecting the territorial integrity of this republic, has instead produced a diabolic scheme like giving up part of our homeland in the name of a peace process.
It also aims to supposedly appease a certain group of misguided and hard core Muslim secessionist group whose consummate dream is to acquire an independent Muslim state in Mindanao for free.
The proposed Bangsamoro Juridical Entity is equipped with the complement of a state like the following:
1.To build their own Armed Forces.
2.To own and control air, lands and seas including explorations and development of the natural resources.
3.To possess their own currency.
4.To make their own laws.
5.To exercise internal and external sovereignty.
Actually, it is a state within a state.
But a Muslim state can never be politically stable because religious and tribal factionalism have always been their
trademark.
Are we prepared to import the tragedies of Kosovo, Palestine, Cyprus, West-East Timor or Lebanon and implant them in Mindanao?
To allow this ignominy to happen, our own government is simply inviting a horrendous monster to come in, putting future generations of Filipinos in endless turmoil and the country defenseless and helpless.
Actually, there is nothing positive we can expect from these dealings because even with the creation of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, this group acted treacherously by secretly buying and piling arms and ammunitions using government funds in preparation for an uprising.
There’s also now a bigger chance they would get full logistic backing from supportive Muslim countries and the opportunity to develop bigger training ground for their soldiers and terrorist guerillas.
To top it all, these people have time and again made public their refusal to acknowledge their Filipino status by claiming they are Muslims not Filipinos.
Playing favorites to a minority group to the exclusion of others could be a case of cultural discrimination.
This could invite agitations from other cultural groups and even bring out regionalistic biases and prejudices.
Is this the legacy we want to be remembered and for the future generations to curse us?
