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By Al Jacinto Correspondent
ZAMBOANGA CITY: A former Muslim
rebel leader, Nur Misuari, jailed on
charges of rebellion, has been removed as chairman of the Moro
National Liberation Front.
Another former rebel leader,
Muslimin Sema, now the mayor of Cotabato City, has been named as the
new chairman of the MNLF. It is the second time in nearly a decade
that Misuari, who founded the MNLF, was removed by his own
commanders.
In 2000, his foreign affairs
chief Parouk Hussin, who along with Sema and other senior leaders,
made up the so-called Council of 15, also opted for Misuari’s
ouster.
Sema’s group previously
appointed Misuari as chairman emeritus, but rejected the position.
The Council of 15 accused Misuari of being incompetent as governor
of the Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao.
Misuari signed a peace deal with
Manila in September 1996 ending decades of bloody war. After the
peace agreement was signed, Misuari became the governor of the
Muslim autonomous region. But despite the peace accord, there was a
widespread disillusionment with the weak autonomy they were granted.
And in November 2001, on the eve
of the elections in the Muslim autonomous region, Misuari accused
the government of reneging on the peace agreement, and launched a
new rebellion in Sulu and Zamboanga City, where more than 100 people
were killed.
Misuari then escaped by boat to
Malaysia, where he had been arrested and deported to the
Philippines. He is now under house arrest and facing rebellion
charges in Manila.
Misuari’s arrest in Malaysia,
which also previously supported the MNLF bid for a separate homeland
in Mindanao, was said to be in retaliation for his failure to secure
the release of dozens of foreigners and Malaysian citizens kidnapped
by the Abu Sayyaf group on two island resorts off Sabah in 2000 and
brought to Sulu province.
Hussin, who became governor of
the Muslim autonomous region, was also ousted several years later
after the Council of 15, disgruntled at his leadership. The council
then reinstalled Misuari as head of the MNLF in 2007.
Under the peace agreement, Manila
would have to provide a mini-Marshal Plan to spur economic
development in Muslim areas in the south and livelihood and housing
assistance to tens of thousands of former rebels to uplift their
poor living standards.
But Misuari’s fall had severely
affected the MNLF which is now heavily divided and rift among its
leaders is becoming more apparent. Misuari also ran twice for
governor in Sulu province even while under detention, but lost. He
also supported Arroyo’s election bid and her allies in the Senate
and Congress in 2004 in exchange for promises that he would be
pardoned and freed.
Sema’s spokesman, Abdullah
Cusain, said the MNLF central committee unanimously elected the
former rebel leader after a plenum on Tuesday in Pagadian City in
Zamboanga del Sur.
“With two-thirds of the Central
Committee’s members and more than 300 ground commanders in
attendance, the 3-day assembly settles the leadership crisis and
absence of policy directions engendered in part by the refusal of
Misuari in 2000 to abide with the decision of the then Council of 15
elevating him as chairman emeritus,” Cusain said.
Cusain said the 58-year-old Sema
vowed to “put into track the peace process with the government and
make good the relations between the MNLF and government and convert
it as vanguard of our people against exploitation and oppression and
also as vanguard for good governance, transparency and
accountability.”
Sema, he said, intends to work
further with local and international non-government organizations to
bring peace and development in Muslim areas in Mindanao.
“Sema expects resistance to his
leadership only by those whom he called as having different
direction in the pursuit of the MNLF’s goals. He stressed that the
Front is not fractured and that reorganization is in the offing,”
Cusain said.
A former aide of Misuari and
member of the Council of 15, Abdul Sahrin, have also been named as
the new MNLF secretary-general. Misuari has previously branded the
Council of 15 as a group of traitors.
Sources close to Misuari said he
might be freed this year on condition that he will go to exile in
Libya, which had previously supported the MNLF struggle for
independence in the Philippines.
It was unknown whether Tripoli
was aware or part of the plan, but Seif al Islam, the son of the
Libyan strongman Muammar al-Gaddafi and former Libyan ambassador to
Manila, Salem Adam were in Manila last year and met with government
and MNLF leaders and discussed about Misuari’s case. 
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