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Calls for UN-supervised Referendum in Mindanao
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The
southern Philippine island of Mindanao is touted to be the richest in
natural resources among the three islands of the country.
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By
Rexcel Sorza, IOL Correspondent
ILOILO
CITY, Philippines, January 28 (IslamOnline.net) – A week before the
resumption of peace talks between the Philippine government and the
Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), calls for a UN-supervised
referendum, as the only means to reach peace, were raised anew.
Eluding
most of the country’s Filipino Muslims for decades, peace could be
reached through a referendum supervised by the United Nations, the
Mindanao People’s Peace Movement (MPPM) formally renewed its call,
first raised two years ago.
MPPM,
through its chairman Alvaro Senturias Jr., wrote Tuesday to government
and MILF peace panels that they are calling for a United Nation’s
supervised or managed referendum on political options in the
Bangsamoro areas of Mindanao.
MPPM
is a coalition of more than 100 human rights and peace groups,
non-government and people’s organizations, schools, churches and
institutions dedicated to the vision and the search for lasting peace
in Mindanao.
The
group also formally submitted the proposal to the negotiating panels
for the undertaking of the UN supervised referendum “seven to ten
years after the effectiveness of any peace agreement that they will
sign.”
“The
time lag will enable proponents of enhanced autonomy, a federal state
within a federal Philippines, and an independent state for the
Bangsamoro a chance to campaign for their favored option,” the group
explained in the letter, a copy of which was sent to IslamOnline.net.
Peaceful
Solution
Abhoud
Syed Lingga, chairman of the Bangsamoro People’s Consultative
Assembly and executive director of the Institute of Bangsamoro
Studies, told IslamOnline.net Friday, January 28, the UN-supervised
referendum “is the peaceful and democratic way of resolving
political conflict.”
Referendum,
Lingga said, would give the Bangsamoro people the opportunity to make
the final decision on their political status instead of their leaders.
“It
is the democratic and peaceful way of resolving political conflicts.
It has been used in many countries, like Czechoslovakia, the Canadian
province of Quebec, and East Timor.”
Not
only that, it will also “serve as the basis of authority and last
word on a solution to the conflict between the Bangsamoro people and
the Philippine government” as the referendum “will accommodate the
divergent views on approaches and solutions to the problem.”
Lingga
said “the problem is basically political” as “the Bangsamoro
people through the years continuously assert their right to a separate
state”.
The
United Nation supervision is needed, Lingga pointed out, “to ensure
the credibility of the outcome of the referendum” and “to ensure
that the decision of the Bangsamoro people will be enforced.”
He
said people could be made to choose between independence and unity
with the Republic of the Philippines.
“If
the choice is independence, the United Nations shall organize a
provisional government and supervise the drafting of a constitution
and first election. If the choice is unity with Philippine government,
free association, enhanced autonomy or federal relation could be
availed of.”
Lingga
also stressed that the holding of a referendum “does not
automatically result to separation of the Bangsamoro people from the
Philippines.”
Referendum,
he emphasized, “is a peaceful and democratic alternative to
violence” and “it is a disincentive to violence. Let us give
peace, peace with justice, a chance by denying people the incentive to
use violence.”
After
more than 30 years, the MILF has failed in its military campaign to
reclaim Mindanao from the Philippines.
The
Moro National Liberation Front managed to ink an agreement with the
government in 1996, giving autonomy to Muslim provinces in Mindanao.
It did not, however, put the conflict to end.
MILF
itself has been calling for a referendum in the Muslim island since
2000, but their negotiating team declined to comment on the fresh call
for referendum.
The
conflict in Mindanao is estimated to have claimed more than
100,000 lives aside from the displacement of thousands more. The
southern Philippine island, touted to be the richest in natural
resources among the three islands of the country, is slowly winning
the confidence of investors with the looming lasting peace.
Philippine
government negotiators could not be reached for comment. They are now
in Europe for a negotiation with the National Democratic Front and
Communist Party of the Philippines.
The
Malaysian government is brokering the peace negotiation between the
parties. The formal peace negotiation is set to resume in the first
week of February in Kuala Lumpur.
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