No agreement yet on transition; peace panels to refer issue to principals
KUALA LUMPUR (MindaNews/29 May) — The executive session between the government and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) peace panels ended Monday with both panels agreeing to refer the issue on transition to their respective principals and returned for the second-day talks Tuesday to discuss power and wealth sharing.
“That’s still a rough area,” Tengku Dato’ Ab Ghafar Tengku Mohamed, the Malaysian facilitator, said, referring to transition.
But he told MindaNews shortly before the panels entered the State Room of the Palace of the Golden Horses hotel here Tuesday morning that “if there’s a will, there’s a way… that’s why there is negotiation.”
The panels held an executive session Monday to discuss the roadmap that includes the highly contentious transition from the present Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) to the “new autonomous political entity.”
Both panels have yet to agree, among other issues, on how the transition government would be installed, given the fact that the ARMM election, already reset from August 8, 2011 to synchronize it with the May 13, 2013 elections, is nearing and the Commission on Elections has set for early October the deadline for filing of certificates of candidacy for ARMM and other elective posts nationwide.
The two panels on April 24 signed the “GPH-MILF Decision Points on Principles as of April 2012.” In Decision Point 2, they agreed that “the status quo is unacceptable” and that both panels will “work for the creation of a new autonomous political entity.”
Government peace penel chair Marvic Leonen, former Dean of the University of the Philippines College of Law, said in his opening statement Tuesday that fears had been expressed that in saying the “status quo is unacceptable,” the government will marginalize “the many other efforts done in the past and still continuing in the present simply in order to sign a peace agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front. The fear is whether government is ready and willing to marginalize other Moro leaders within the conflict affected areas.[]
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“The best answer to this is that any democratic arrangement, even within an autonomous area, always concedes tolerance. That is, stewardship of government comes as a privilege distributed through a process that ensures a democratic mandate,” he said.
Last Friday, he told a business forum in Davao City that there have been suggestions “that there should be no elections in (the ARMM in) 2013 if only because we want to serve the peace process” but added that may not be the solution.
“Is it really the solution to postpone electoral exercises because we are unsure of it or would it be better to have electoral exercises and in the process try to reform it and see where its weaknesses are and let it continue in order that we can continually improve it?” Leonen asked.
“Next question is why would you postpone an election process and install a new government without electoral process if there is no mandate behind it? So therefore again, we think elections are important in that area and ..[]
we need a political transformation that is supported both by national government and also economic development in that area,” he said.
He said that if there is no final peace agreement signed, “definitely the law takes over” and RA 10153 provices that there will be an election in 2013.[]
But Leonen added that “even with a peace agreement in mind, it is difficult at best, again not to have elections in 2013. However, we think it is still possible to address the concerns of the MILF even with election in 2013.” He did not elaborate on how to address these concerns but in his opening statement on Tuesday, stressed that negotiated political settlements “should be careful that we do not supplant, devalue or marginalize the efforts of the good souls who have even during the conditions of unpeace, also worked valiantly to achieve the laudable aspirations of those who took arms.”
“Put in another way, we must be careful not to allow the attractions of a revolutionary ideal monopolize our attention such as to forget the efforts of those who have painstakingly engaged in the many other different struggles needed to put some of the conditions for meaningful democratic autonomy in place. These are the civil servants and perhaps some political leaders who have participated in elections no matter how imperfect. I believe that this is a point that we share with the MILF,” he said.
MILF peace panel chair Mohagher Iqbal, in his opening statement on Tuesday said the issue of transition “is still the most ticklish issue to crack. “
“This puts to test whether the government is really serious in empowering the MILF in the transition period and finally the Moros in the regular government,” he said, adding that the MILF’s role in the transition is “very brief” and that “it is not alone in the implementation.”
“In partnership with the government, it sets the house in order and after which, it will be free for all. The MILF either runs in the election in the regular period or puts up a political party to participate in it, and if it wins the majority in the assembly will form the government. If the government insists on making the MILF hitchhike in the transition and let others occupy the driver’s seat, then it is not really serious. It runs opposite to good practices that partners in peace-making will help one another in the implementation. Is this not the most reasonable and natural arrangement? “
Iqbal had earlier repeatedly said the MILF in a transition government should take the driver’s seat because it negotiated the agreement but would be inclusive of the other Bangsamoro.
“It is time to test the mettle of the MILF, whether it can rise to the occasion and deliver or it is just another corrupt group that when empowered will do exactly the thing they disdained. The politicians have been in the helm of government ever since and what did they do to improve the lot of our people? The Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) was installed in power in 1996 and what did they prove? Did they make any difference in the lives of our people? Just look around in the Moro areas and one will get the answers to this question,” he said on Tuesday.
But Iqbal was quick to add that he cannot blame the politicians and the MNLF in that “perhaps, they can only be faulted for joining a system that they have no chance of correcting.”
“Whoever joins it without a provision for a level playing field of engagement will be subsumed and finds advocating the same corrupt practices. Or they will be cast aside as casualties of the system. For the MILF, a revolutionary Islamic movement, the best way to fight a dysfunctional system is not to enjoy it — but to present an alternative but superior system and assert it until it becomes a reality,” Iqbal added.
The MILF has proposed a parliamentary form of government within the autonomous set-up. (Carolyn O. Arguillas/MindaNews)
