Saturday, August 23, 2008 Speak out: Not a new Darfur but an Afghanistan By Kenneth Casiple Barangay Pusok, Lapu-Lapu City
WHEN will government stop trying to appease the Moro separatists?
Why should government keep listening to the dictates of foreign nations on how we should handle a domestic problem?
For all we know, these foreign nations who keep manifesting interest in this particular problem in the guise of “peace-keeping” are also the ones supplying guns to the separatists.
It has become clear, time and again, both locally and in other countries, that the nature of these people is such that they cannot be fully governed by a central authority.
They are forever split along tribal, clan and family lines.
Negotiating with any faction does not guarantee the support of the majority.
Splinter groups and “lost commands” break off as easily as yeast cells bud off into new cells.
A Muslim lawyer working for the Bangsamoro cause was interviewed on TV yesterday.
He warned that if the Bangsamoro cause will be denied, Mindanao will become another Darfur.
Well, on the contrary, if the Bangsamoro are given their territorial wishes, Mindanao will become another Afghanistan.
It will descend into a dysfunctional state split into fiefdoms, each governed by warlords.
Just look at Marawi City.
How long has it been a Muslim-dominated city?
By this time, it should already have evolved into an example of Bangsamoro success.
Are there big businesses and industries?
Is it a tourist destination?
Even Mindanao State University has opened a satellite campus in the relative safety of Iligan because its teachers are regularly kidnapped for ransom.
If the government is to enter into negotiations at all with these people, the first, foremost, and non-negotiable precondition is to disarm all of them.
For too long and at the expense of the lives of countless soldiers and civilians, the government’s erratic treatment of these armed groups has caused this problem to fester and the long-awaited development of Mindanao stunted.
