BMNews
BANGSAMORO NEWS AGENCY
PRESS RELEASE
19 January 2002
Reference No. (9662) 6645101
_____________________________________________________________________________
“Rage of the Moro Masses”
– Misuari
CHAIRMAN
Prof. Nur Misuari of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF)
has described the recent Jolo incident as the starting point of
“the rage of the Moro masses against the Philippine colonial
government.”
The observation of the MNLF
Chairman, who is now detained in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, was revealed
to Atty. Elly Velez Pamatong, the New York-based lawyer who
visited the former yesterday in his detention center.
Since the incarceration of the legendary Muslim leader,
the oppressed Bangsamoro people of Filipino-occupied Mindanao
have expressed their sympathy and support with the MNLF
Chairman, who to them wholeheartedly abandoned the so-called
ARMM governorship just to express his disgust and disappointment
with the insincerity and treachery shown by the Philippine
government under President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo related to
the non-implementation of the September 2, 1996 MNLF-OIC-GRP
Peace Agreements.
The recent Jolo incident that involved the “Concerned
Citizens of Jolo” peace rally of more than 10,000, but was
apparently sabotaged by the Philippine occupation Marines,
resulting in the shooting war between them and the AFP, PNP-MNLF
Integrees, signified the raging disheartened feelings of the
Bangsamoro people against the Manila government. It registered
36 deaths and several wounded, mostly innocent civilians.
Worst, showing their hatred to the Filipino occupation
forces, the Moro civilians cut into pieces and beheaded some
Scout Rangers during the second raging day.
It is recalled that through the instigation of Peace
Process Presidential Adviser Ret. Gen. Eduardo Ermita and
Special Concerns Adviser Norberto Gonzales, President Gloria M.
Arroyo created and financed the so-called 15-man MNLF Executive
Council to divide the MNLF leadership and to confuse the
Bangsamoro people with the prime objective of marginalizing
Chairman Nur Misuari in the peace process.
Furthermore, the Ermita-Gonzales master plan was also to
deceive the Islamic Ummah, particularly the 57-nation
Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), and the international
community of nations into believing that the MNLF Chairman is a
“corrupt and incompetent” ARMM Governor and no longer
recognized by the MNLF general membership.
Conveniently,
the Arroyo government used the government-paid Manila tri-media
to discredit and to malign the integrity and character of the
MNLF Chairman. Unfortunately, the black propaganda was merely
mouthed by the international tri-media - CNN, BBC, NBC Asia,
REUTERS, AFP, etc.,alas, without slightest verification of the
truth from the other side.
Now
with the wide sympathy and support generated by the unlawful
detention of MNLF Chairman Prof. Nur Misuari from all sectors,
particularly from the professionals, youth, studentry, religious
and women of the Bangsamoro society in Mindanao and MetroManila,
the fact cannot be hidden that the people have identified
themselves with the tragedy befallen the supposedly known “father
of Bangsamoro independence” created by Malacanang.
The
Bangsamoro people have had expressed their dissatisfaction with
the Arroyo government by holding spontaneous peace rallies for
“Misuari and independence” in Mindanao and MetroManila. And
peaceful demonstrations are further scheduled, particularly the
simultaneous joint MNLF-MILF Davao, General Santos, Cotabato and
Marawi City rally for Bangsamoro independence on January 21,
this year.
Closely
watching the developments and complementing with the strong
sentiments inside the Mindanao homeland for complete national
freedom, the Bangsamoro expatriates in the Middle East,
particularly in Saudi Arabia and in the Gulf States, have
expressed their concern with the fate of MNLF Chairman Prof. Nur
Misuari.
They
have issued a call to the Bangsamoro people inside the homeland
that the MNLF Chairman together with MILF Chairman Ustadz Hashim
Salamat and the other patriotic Highlander and Christian
Mindanaoans should be supported with their heroic struggle to
regain the self-determination and independence of Mindanao
Dr.
Abu Muhammad, Head of the MNLF-Bangsamoro Independence Council
based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, has chided the Philippine
President Gloria M. Arroyo for dividing the MNLF and Moro people
with the concoction of the 15-man MNLF EC to unilaterally
install again a fake autonomy in Mindanao. It is seen that her
political move is to enhance her winning the 2004 presidential
election in Mindanao.
The
Jeddah-based Bangsamoro leader observed that “the Manila
government has never learned a lesson from history because
hell-bent to perpetuate Philippine colonialism in Mindanao, the
Filipino presidents -- from Quezon, Marcos and now Arroyo --
have never tired to institute the sinister divide and rule
policy that has caused the continuing Filipino-Moro conflict
that to date has registered close to 300,000 deaths and
countless material losses in Mindanao.”
In
the Gulf States, the Bangsamoro workers expressed disappointment
over the inutility of President Gloria M. Arroyo to solve
peacefully the escalating Filipino-Moro war in Mindanao.
On the other hand, they have
also expressed disenchantment on the un-Islamic action shown by
Prime Minister Dato Seri Dr. Mahathir Muhamad of Malaysia.
The
spokesman of the group, Prof. Zaidi al-Amir, described the
Malaysian strongman as “ a bad example of a Muslim leader who
can never be trusted by the Islamic Ummah to do justice to the
oppressed humanity.” He added, “if a Muslim leader like him
could commit injustice to Muslim leaders, like Anwar Ibrahim and
Chairman Nur Misuari, we can only pity the Malaysian people, who
are today terrorized by his machiavellian politics and has
blindly reduced Malaysia into a mere police state through the
draconian Internal Security Act (ISA) decree.”
“However,
this kind of immoral Muslim leader, who has become a gross
violator of human rights and truly now the ‘great Malay
dilemma’, should be exposed and cursed by the Malaysian and
Bangsamoro peoples,” emphasized further by Prof. Al-Amir.
The
Bangsamoro expatriates in the Middle East agreed with Atty. Elly
Velez Pamatong that the power-hungry Malaysian Prime Minister
should be declared by now the “number one terrorist in Asia”
for the Malaysian people do not deserve this kind of vicious and
vindictive leader.
The
Bangsamoro expatriates altogether expressed their support with
the move of the Muslim lawyers in the Philippines to file
charges against the Malaysian Prime Minister in the
International Court in Belgium for violating the fundamental
human rights of the premier Bangsamoro freedom fighter, Chairman
Prof. Nur Misuari, whom he deported from Malaysia to the
Philippines minus an extradition treaty to face
“rebellion” charges fabricated by the Philippine
court.
It
is observed that as usual, the MNLF Chairman, who was given the
highest recognition by Sabah Governor Sakaran Dandai the title
“Datu Seri Panglima”, left Mindanao via the East Bornean
state to report to the OIC Secretary General in Jeddah regarding
the violations committed by the Manila government in the
implementation of the September 2, 1996 MNLF-OIC-GRP Peace
Agreements. However, the Malaysian Prime Minister ordered
mysteriously his apprehension for “illegal entry” and
eventually deported him to Manila for detention despite the
humanitarian intervention of the UNHCR and the OIC Secretary
General.
Prof.
Al-Amir thus concluded, “the conspiracy between Prime Minister
Dato Seri
Mahathir Muhamad and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to
marginalize MNLF Chairman Prof. Nur Misuari in the peace process
has everything to do with the Sabah issue. The Philippine
president may benefit by hundreds million U.S. dollars from her
Malaysian counterpart to assure her campaign funds for
presidential election 2004, and mutually the Malaysian leader
may hope to resolve the thorny Sabah problem during his reign.
Thus, for this reason alone, Malaysia tried so hard to become
the 8th member of the OIC Ministerial Committee
tasked to solve peacefully the Bangsamoro problem.”
On
this score, the Bangsamoro expatriates in the Middle East have
joined the loud protest of the Muslim lawyers in the Philippines
and the strong petition of the MNLF to the Office of the OIC
Secretary General to remove Malaysia while under the leadership
of Dato Seri Dr. Mahathir Muhammad from the OIC Ministerial
Committee handling the Muslim affairs of South Philippines.
They
expressed agreement with the observation of the MNLF Secretary
General, Ustadz Murshi Ibrahim, that “the active participation
of Malaysian Foreign Minister Dato Seri Hamid Albar, who is
merely an errand-dog of Prime Minister Mahathir, in the OIC
Ministerial Committee of Eight has only aggravated the
Filipino-Moro conflict. A conspirator from the beginning, the
Malaysian Foreign Minister is only pursuing the personal
interest of his superior at the expense of the Bangsamoro and
Filipino peoples, who are doomed to fight each other to serve
the hidden agenda of Prime Minister Dato Seri Dr. Mahathir
Muhammad and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.”
Jaddi Jehan, Ummu Kezia,
Abdullah B. Usman,
and Abu Muhamed Rheda -- BMNews Correspondents
in Mindanao and Middle East.
