Reflection of Moslem discontent?<\/p>\n
The assault which killed 45 people and devastated a town in
\nthe southern Philippines may well remain a bad dream if President
\nFidel Ramos fails to overcome Moslem rebels.<\/p>\n
Ramos quickly put the blame on the Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group
\ncalling the incident the worst in 20 years. Is the group really
\nthe one responsible for the assault? The Moslem rebels in the
\ncountry are not united and they have broken up into small
\nfactions. Some of the factions seem to look more like bandit
\ngroups.<\/p>\n
The Philippines government and the Moro National Liberation
\nFront are planning to hold their second peace talk in Indonesia
\nin June this year.<\/p>\n
In our view, Manila has so far rejected all the MNLF demands
\nwithout providing any logical alternative. We sometimes think
\nthat Manila is determined to take over the land belonging to
\nMoslems and the assault was a response to the intrusion of
\nChristians from central and northern Philippines.<\/p>\n
The majority of the town of Ipil with an inhabitants of
\n150,000 people are Christians and not even one local government
\napparatus is Moslem on this demographically Moslem island of
\nMindanao.<\/p>\n
The intrusion of people from central and northern Philippines
\nis linked to the economic difficulties the country is facing. And
\nthis population movement is indirectly supported by the
\nPhilippines government.<\/p>\n
Hence, in our opinion the assault to Ipil is a reflection of
\nland appropriation and the advent of Christians to the island.
\nThe Philippines government has to resolve the long festering
\nissue of the Moslem rebel immediately.<\/p>\n
-- Pikiran Rakyat, Bandung<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/reflection-of-moslem-discontent-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }