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IN January 2007, Mohagher Iqbal, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front
chief peace negotiator, asked the Arroyo administration to study
models around the world on sovereignty-related conflicts to improve
the chances of success of the government-Muslim peace talks for a
new autonomous region in Mindanao.
A year later, the government and the MILF remain
miles apart from reaching an agreement on ending the Muslim
insurgency and establishing a Bangsamoro government that would
restore peace in Mindanao.
Iqbal must have looked around the world and
studied how governments and secessionists have settled their wars,
or how countries besieged by cultural, language or religious
conflicts have reconciled these tensions. He didn’t say which
model interested him most, leaving it to Malacanang to explore the
possibilities and propose some at the negotiating table.
The Aland solution
Both sides could consider the “Aland
Solution.” The Swedish-speaking Aland islands, with a population
of 26,500, were ceded from Sweden to Finland in the 19th century. In
time, the islanders sought to break away from Helsinki. The two
sides resolved the dispute by giving Aland a large degree of
autonomy, allowing the islanders to have their own flag and postage
stamps and banning stationing troops or weapons on the islands. Last
year, the president of Georgia visited the Alands to study its
special status as an autonomous region of Finland. Two regions in
his country are giving him a headache.
The Aceh agreement
The 30-year separatist war in the Indonesian
province of Aceh ended in 2006 when the Free Aceh Movement and
Jakarta reached an agreement that gave Aceh greater autonomy and the
right to elect its own representatives. The Acehnese will have
greater control over their own affairs and will get 70 per cent of
revenues from Aceh’s oil and gas reserves. The deal ends
Jakarta’s military presence on the territory and gave the Acehnese
genuine democratic space. About 15,000 were killed during the
conflict.
The Quebec formula
The Canadian government has conferred a
special-nation status—“a nation within Canada”—on Quebec, a
largely French-speaking province that has sought to establish its
own identity and sovereignty. The Quebecois have tried in several
referendums to break away from Canada and at one time came close to
winning a majority. Ottawa had previously promoted French as a
national language to appease the province.
The Lebanese self-deception
While Muslims outnumber Christians in Lebanon,
an agreement signed in 1989 ordered that the Cabinet and Parliament,
by law, must be half-Christian and half-Muslim. At one time, the
foreign minister was a Maronite Christian, the defense minister a
Shiite Muslim, the interior minister a Greek Orthodox and the
finance minister a Sunni Muslim.
The power sharing appeared to please everybody
and has allowed Lebanon to enjoy a respite from bloody civil war.
For this reason, the government has postponed holding a census since
the results would show a clear Muslim majority in a population of
four million.
Separation by vote
In June 2006 voters in semiautonomous Catalonia
voted for greater autonomy from the Madrid government. In a
referendum, the Catalonians asked for a bigger share of taxes raised
in the region, a voice in the appointment of judges, wider use of
the Catalonian language, control over nonstrategic ports and
airports and an informal declaration of Catalonia as a “nation.”
Spain’s Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez
Zapatero welcomed Catalan’s new charter and offered other regions
the same deal. Cheering from the sidelines to ask for greater
autonomy are Valencia, Andalusia and the Basque region. An armed
Basque separatist army has been waging war on Spain for 30 years.
Partition
To end the Iraqi conflict, the United States
Senate—in a nonbonding resolution—has proposed splitting Iraq
along three sectarian and ethnic lines. The resolution would redraw
the map based on a limited central government, allowing the Shiites
in the south, the Sunni Arab minority and Kurds in the north to set
up regions with considerable autonomous powers.
The plan envisions a power-sharing structure
similar to the one that ended the war in Bosnia in the 1990s.
Critics said the partition would harden existing ethnic and
religious divisions. Supporters said Iraq has cracked up and cannot
be made whole again.
Democracy and moderation
There are dozens of independence movements
around the world—in Bolivia, Scotland, Belgium, Italy, Thailand,
Myanmar and Spain. Governments and separatists—as in the
Philippines—are searching for an answer and the process has not
been easy. The Soviet Union has split into 15 republics.
Czechoslovakia peacefully divided itself into the Czech and Slovak
republics. Yugoslavia disappeared from the map with the breakup of
the federation. Belgium remains divided and a final split is not
surprising.
There is no easy answer to the Bangsamoro issue.
But as Manila and the MILF grope for a solution, we hope that the
cause of Muslim leader Amina Rasul—that of promoting democracy,
mutual respect and dialogue in Mindanao and among Muslims and
Christians—would find greater traction. Reason, moderation and
respect for the Constitution on all sides will help us get through
this muddle.
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