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Everyday Heroes: Jaime Lim
Everyday Heroes: Jaime Lim
Lim has been the publisher of the Asian Reporter newspaper for 15 years and is involved in numerous boards and community groups. But he may be best known for his Asian Reporter Foundation, which has awarded more than $700,000 in scholarships to area students.
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| Saturday, 05 April 2008 | |
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By Yolanda Ortega Stern Print media has been reporting about an impending rift within the MNLF. The story of the Council of 15 who bolted, returned, and re-bolted, is an old story. They did it again last week in Pagadian. They re-ousted Chairman Nur Misuari and installed Muslimin Sema in yet another bid to form their own “MNLF 2”. Their grievances are old grievances and we have all read them. The men involved are known to all of their former associates, for they were once fighting shoulder to shoulder for the Moslems’ right to self determination. Some fought in deeds, and some with words. No matter, their publicized goals are not too far from their former combatants, with one difference, some of them are now identified with government and indeed appear to have the support and encouragement of those in government. That puts them under the suspicious net relegated to those that have moved up into government positions. At the sidelines watching, is the MNLF, with its Chairman Prof Nur Misuari still in detention after seven years, without trial. The OIC recognizes him as the legitimate Chairman of the MNLF. His representatives at the Dakar Summit of Sovereigns and Heads of States were the only recognized representatives. He was of course invited, as he was for the Jeddah meeting, but he was not allowed travel papers by the court. The position of the MNLF today has not changed much. Even from detention, Chairman Misuari continues the same struggle to move further and forward, the Moslems struggle for self determination, by demanding the full implementation of the 1996 Peace Agreement. The OIC has called for the same. Despite misrepresentation or lack of representation in print media, the MNLF has grown in numbers, the women having joined in greater numbers for many initiatives and Lumads and Christians playing an ever greater role in determining the future. Then there is the MILF, the former MNLF brothers who are today forging a hardline quest for a separate territory outside of the constitution. The late Chairman, Hashim Salamat told Prof Misuari in 1996 after he signed the Peace Agreement that he “would go to my death fighting for a separate territory, and you, Brother Nur, can continue with your struggle for autonomy and maybe one of us will get something for all of us”. The MILF has learned vicariously from the MNLF experience. They will not make the same mistake of trusting that promises made will be promises kept. They will therefore not sign a Peace Agreement within a constitutional framework, and the bicameral legislature will not allow it. The AFP, whose job it is to defend the constitution will be on standby to preserve it on the orders of the President. The reunification of the MNLF and the MILF is being called for today, not only by the OIC, but by Libya, the Philippines and by some Moslem youth groups. It has been forgotten that a reunification of the two was considered an event to be feared as early as seven years ago. But today it is the rifts within these organizations that are being used to justify the internal coups, the non implementation of projects, even the war on terror. “They are just all fighting among themselves, how can we make progress?” From a military standpoint, the reunification of the MNLF and the MILF will make for a Mindanao Theatre of Dreams. The combined forces of the two will make for a formidable battle among almost equals, and much to the delight of those who have stakes in the Mindanao Conflict. The battle will be long and prolonged, with hundreds of casualties, and many of the youth joining in. But asking the MNLF and the MILF to unite is like asking the political parties of the Philippines to unite. Who will lay down the rules for unification, and on what basis will the leader be chosen and by whom? And how do you marry conflicting agendas? And what acronym will satisfy? Will it be MINLF? MNLF-MILF ? New MN-MI-LF? How will they agree to a separate peace and agree to territories that overlap? Can brothers at heart turn against each other for pieces of the same pie? Will they fall for this unity trap and allow themselves to become fall guys for their own troubled territories? Or should they on their own, sit down and agree to unify around a strategic and mutual agenda and then go forth without conflict among them? The answer lies in what is happening today. Mindanao Moslems understand the meaning of war but have very little experience with peace, much less two separate peace. There were the old wars against the MNLF; against the MILF; then the current war against the Abbu Sayyef; the Jemayah Islamiya, Bojinka, etc. There is even a war against poverty! But still almost 80% of Sulu does not have sanitary toilets. The terrorists are still in hiding. Some of them have even been killed more than once. The allegations of “Divide and Conquer” have been labeled at every administration since the Spanish occupation. The burning of Jolo by the Spaniards and Battle of Bud Dajo and Bud Bagsak still haunt current events. But if we live by a cipher that seeks revenge for the past, then we our future is doomed to repeat the same mistakes. Why not leave the internal strifes alone? Why not free Misuari and test the waters on renewed ground? Why not leave the two organizations and their internal struggles to be sorted among them? The government must stay its course and take the role of Leader in the search for solutions. It must take the initiative to think out of the box because it is ahead of other countries. It cannot afford to take sides in personal rivalries among internal factions. It must accord the same respect it expects for itself. It must study all proposals on the table and seek to legislatively end conflict and give the Moslems their just desserts or separate them into their own territories without war. To live and let live. The Philippine Solution to the Mindanao problem will be referred to by nations who are only now beginning to confront the same problems in their own backyards, just as the outcomes in Timor, Bosnia, and the Balkans are being evaluated by many. We owe this to our great nation and to the great people that inhabit our archipelago. |
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447 Sutter St. Philippine Consulate Bldg. Suites 700-701 San Francisco, California 94108-0000 Tel/Fax 415-398-3043 USA The U.S. Federation of Philippine American Chambers of Commerce, Inc., is a not for profit corporation incorporated under the not for profit laws of California. It has 42 chapter members from all over the United States mainland to include Hawaii. Incorporated in 1997, it bridges US Philippines trade and commerce, promotes goodwill and mutually beneficial projects between the two countries. It holds an annual conference in the US and one trade mission a year to the Philippines. It currently has several major Memorandums of Agreement with major Public and Private sector departments of the Philippines, including a major one with the US-SBA. |
Copyright © 2008. FPACC - Federation of Philippine American Chambers of Commerce. All Rights Reserved.
Site by OIA
447 Sutter St. Philippine Consulate Bldg. Suites 700-701 San Francisco, California 94108-0000 Tel/Fax 415-398-3043 USA The U.S. Federation of Philippine American Chambers of Commerce, Inc., is a not for profit corporation incorporated under the not for profit laws of California. It has 42 chapter members from all over the United States mainland to include Hawaii. Incorporated in 1997, it bridges US Philippines trade and commerce, promotes goodwill and mutually beneficial projects between the two countries. It holds an annual conference in the US and one trade mission a year to the Philippines. It currently has several major Memorandums of Agreement with major Public and Private sector departments of the Philippines, including a major one with the US-SBA. |