Reflection of Moslem discontent?

Reflection of Moslem discontent?

The assault which killed 45 people and devastated a town in the southern Philippines may well remain a bad dream if President Fidel Ramos fails to overcome Moslem rebels.

Ramos quickly put the blame on the Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group calling the incident the worst in 20 years. Is the group really the one responsible for the assault? The Moslem rebels in the country are not united and they have broken up into small factions. Some of the factions seem to look more like bandit groups.

The Philippines government and the Moro National Liberation Front are planning to hold their second peace talk in Indonesia in June this year.

In our view, Manila has so far rejected all the MNLF demands without providing any logical alternative. We sometimes think that Manila is determined to take over the land belonging to Moslems and the assault was a response to the intrusion of Christians from central and northern Philippines.

The majority of the town of Ipil with an inhabitants of 150,000 people are Christians and not even one local government apparatus is Moslem on this demographically Moslem island of Mindanao.

The intrusion of people from central and northern Philippines is linked to the economic difficulties the country is facing. And this population movement is indirectly supported by the Philippines government.

Hence, in our opinion the assault to Ipil is a reflection of land appropriation and the advent of Christians to the island. The Philippines government has to resolve the long festering issue of the Moslem rebel immediately.

-- Pikiran Rakyat, Bandung