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Portent of War in Mindanao…
Libya on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC), hosted the signing of the agreements of 1976 and 1996. It should be noted that Nur Misuari, who represented the Muslim side in that peace talks, a University of the Philippines (UP) product, protégé of the UP legend Prof. Renato Constantino — together with the asthmatic or tubercolic-looking Jose Ma. Sison — Joema, the dauntless Maranao politician, Congressman Raschid Lucman, among many others.
In Mindanao, Nur humbly took on the role of coffee server of the elders of the Bangsa Moro Liberation Organization (BMLO) until he formed his own faction Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) that was more along the line of the beliefs in communism and socialism that he shared with his mentors and blood brother, Joema. Salamat Hashim, on the other hand, did not recognize the MNLF of Misuari, just because of the fact that the MNLF was able to get the coveted official role of representative of Philippine Muslims to the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) that was also funneling funds to the Muslim rebellion in the South.
Both Malaysia and Indonesia, have always had an agenda in the peace talks as much as they had a deep, clandestine agenda in the Muslim rebellion in the South. It should be noted that whatever had transpired and whatever had developed over the years between RP and the Malays and the Indos, it should be respected that Maguindanaos, Maranaos and Tausugs — the main bulk of the Muslim tribes in the South — have actual blood relations among the Malaysians and the Indonesians.
These blood links provide for active interactions between them. For instance, Salamat Hashim and his clan, the Maguindanao Sultanate, as well as many other Maguindanaos, fete their visiting Indonesian relatives in Mindanao as they are also warmly received and feted in Indonesia when they are there. The same is true with Tausugs and other tribal Muslims that have relations among the Malaysians, the citizens of the royal government of Brunei Darrussallam. Little do ordinary Filipinos and the rest of the world know that the highly active interaction, communication between the people of Maguindanao, Maranao and Tausug Sultanates, and Indonesians, Malaysians, the people of Brunei have made a great number of things happen in both Mindanao and the Philippines.
Not all of these interchanges however, are positive as in the surreptitious entry into and hiding of Dulmatin, Omar Patek, Agus Dwikarma, Fathurroman Al Ghozi, among others in, the country. These are Islamic fundamentalists that have adopted terror as their means of resolving issues and problems. Their network, the Jemaah Islamiyyah, has been notoriously associated with a large number of bloody and violent acts that are not within the realm of reason. If the Abu Sayyaf and the MILF have been linked to the Jemaah (Indonesian Islamics’ term for “movement”), so be it. In fact, with the brisk exchange and intercourse between Mindanao, Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia, that is very much old news.
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