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Chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim delivers his message during the Signing of Framework Agreement
His Excellency, President Benigno Simeon Aquino III;
His Excellency, Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najeeb Tun Abdul Razak;
His Excellency, Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najeeb Tun Abdul Razak;
Her Excellency Datin Sri Rosmah Mansor
His Excellency Ekmeledin Ekhsanoglu – OIC Secretary General
Excellencies of the Foreign Diplomatic Corp;
Honorable Members of the President’s Cabinet;
Honorable Members og the Government Peace Panel;
Members of the MILF Delegation;
Honored Guests, Friends and Brothers and Sisters in Islam
Your Excellencies:
Good afternoon and assalamo ‘alaykom wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuho.
I must confess that this is the first time in my life to step on the
grounds of Malacanang. Never in my wildest dream since I was a child or
when I joined the Bangsamoro struggle more than 40 years ago that one
day, I will see the interior of this building that once housed the
Spanish and American Governors-General and now the presidents of the
Philippines.
Today, I’m here not as a tourist, nor as a politician who seeks
personal political favors from the President of the Philippines, but as
the humble Chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) mandated
by our brothers and sisters on the ground and by the Bangsamoro people
to witness a historic agreement with the Government of the Republic of
the Philippines under the leadership of President Benigno Simeon Aquino
III would, Insha’Allah, usher in a just and enduring peace in the
Bangsamoro Homeland.
It is in this context that I come in peace and to forge a partnership
of peace on the basis of the Framework Agreement between the MILF and
the Philippine Government.
Your Excellencies:
Almost five centuries of foreign invasions and domination had given
birth to what we now call the Bangsamoro Question. In the course of
these centuries of conflict, we have seen the loss of our traditional
Moro sultanates; the extirpation of our sovereignty as a free Moro
nation; and consequently, our relegation into a state of captivity that
eradicated our Bangsamoro identity and reduced our ancestral homeland
into small parcels of gerrymandered territories called provinces, all of
which led to the marginalization of our people within a larger dominant
Philippine society that barely took cognizance, if at all, of our
forebears’ unbroken struggle for freedom even before the Philippine
Republic saw the light of day in 1898 and in 1946.
These unjust conditions that sustained this conflict in our
generation made it inevitable for the Moro liberation movement to
emerge. And from the womb of this Moro liberation movement would be born
the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and, consequently, the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front.
The peace negotiations that took place, first in 1976 in Tripoli,
Libya, and onto 1996 in Jakarta, Indonesia, between our brethren in the
MNLF and the Philippine government were all geared towards addressing
the historical and current grievances of the Bangsamoro people. But
unfortunately, the negotiations came short of going further deep into
the root cause of the Moro Question. Thus, the appropriate political
formula to correct the historical and current injustices committed on
the Bangsamoro people remained elusive. Political palliatives and
economic cosmetics under the rubric of counter-insurgency which were
successively put in place to resolve the Moro Question proved to be
failed experiments in political autonomy, the latest of which is the
ARMM, and so the conflict remained that has invariably taken a heavy
toll on the lives, properties and livelihoods of our people – Moro,
indigenous community and settler -- in Mindanao and Sulu.
Under such dire circumstances, peace negotiations were unable to
alter, let alone normalize, the adversarial relationship between the
Bangsamoro people and the Philippine State. And it was this adversarial
relationship that continued to fan the armed sovereignty-based conflict
in our homeland and thus obstruct the attainment of a just and enduring
peace as requisite to normalization.
It was for this reason that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front under
the leadership of the late Chairman and Amirul Mujahideen, Sheikh
Salamat Hashim, may Allah swt accept his sacrifices, decided to engage
in peaceful negotiations with the Philippine government in 1997. The
basic principle underlying this most important decision by the MILF
leadership is that ‘negotiated political settlement is the most
civilized and practical way to solve the Moro Problem’.
This principle laid down by Sheikh Salamat became a consistent
policy. We, in the MILF Central Committee, did not waver and vacillate
in pursuing it to the end despite the devastating three all-out wars in
2000, 2003 and 2008 waged by previous Philippine regimes on the MILF.
This was the legacy of Sheikh Salamat’s leadership which I, when I
took over the chairmanship of the MILF after he passed away in 2003,
inherited and continued to pursue with unflinching determination and
with great personal sacrifice despite tremendous pressures from some
restive quarters of our Moro populace on one hand, and provocations by
forces hostile to the Bangsamoro cause on the other, to abandon peaceful
negotiation and relentlessly take the path of war.
Today, it humbles me to say before you that we have stayed the
course. Our perseverance has prevailed over those whose obsession is to
perpetuate war and conflict in Mindanao and Sulu for
self-aggrandizement.
Today, after almost 16 years of hard negotiations interspersed with
armed confrontations on the ground, we have inked the most important
document in this chapter of our history; a landmark document that
restores to our people their Bangsamoro identity and their homeland;
their right to govern themselves; and the power to forge their destiny
and future with their very own hands.
Today, we are here to celebrate a victory for the Bangsamoro people
and the Filipino nation that is shared by the international community
and the Muslim World: a victory earned not by war but by that collective
desire tempered by the inner nobility of human nature to restore
justice and peace to a troubled land.
Today, we are here to put an end to that adversarial relationship
between the Bangsamoro and the Philippine nation. And what makes this
more significant and quite touching on our part is that this is
happening under the administration of President Noynoy Aquino, whose
martyred father, Senator Ninoy Aquino, and mother, the late President
Cory Aquino, fought on the same side of the fence with us against the
dictatorship that devastated our homeland and snuffed the lives of
thousands of our people.
Today, we extend the hands of friendship and partnership to the
President and the Filipino people as we jointly embark on the historic
journey to rebuild our homeland, institute justice, end occupation and
the reign of violence, and restore normalcy to the lives of the masses
of our people in Mindanao and Sulu. With this Framework Agreement on the
Bangsamoro, we pray never to see again refugee camps cramped with old
folks, women and children wallowing in squalor and misery, as well as
never again witness the recurring wholesale violation of human rights
that comes with oppression -- all of which deface the landscape of our
Bangsamoro homeland and denigrate the lofty human values long held by a
civilized and just society.
Today, I would also like to announce to all that we dedicate this
Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro to our departed leaders, the late
MILF Chairman Sheikh Salamat Hashim, the late MILF Vice-Chairman Aleem
Abdulaziz Mimbantas, Ustadz Abukhalil Yahya, Ustadz Zainon Zaman, among
others, and to all our mujahideen martyrs, whether MILF or MNLF, who
sacrificed their lives for the Cause of Allah swt and for the
Bangsamoro. To them, and to all the peace-loving people in this country,
this Agreement shall stand as our greatest tribute.
Let me also have this opportunity to call on, and appeal to, our MNLF
brethren to support the Framework Agreement, and take this historic
journey with us to rebuild our Bangsamoro Homeland on the gains given to
us by this Agreement. This is not the time for recriminations. This is
the time for unity, the time for all of us to think, act and speak as
one Bangsamoro as we summon all our strengths to face the daunting task
of home rule.
Finally, on behalf of the Bangsamoro people and the Moro Islamic
Liberation Front, may I extend our heartfelt thanks to His Excellency
President Benigno Simeon Aquino III; His Excellency Prime Minister Dato’
Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak; His Excellency Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, the
former Prime Minister, in whose term of office peace negotiations were
done in Malaysia; to His Excellency, Ekmeluddin Ihsanoglou, Secretary
General of the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC); and to the
Malaysian Facilitators and Secretariat.
Likewise, to all the state and non-state actors that compose the
International Contact Group (ICG): the Governments of the United
Kingdom, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and its international NGO
components – Conciliation Resources, Muhammadiyyah, The Asia Foundation,
and Center for Humanitarian Dialogue; and to the International
Monitoring Team (IMT) and its Civilian Protection Component: Malaysia,
Brunei, Libya, Japan, Norway, Indonesia and the European Union,
Non-Violent Peace Force, Mindanao People’s Caucus (MPC), Mindanao Human
Rights Action Center (MinHRAC) and Muslim Organization of Government
Officials and Professionals (MOGOP); and to all those world
organizations and countries that sent their messages of support to the
Framework Agreement such as the United Nations, the European Union, the
United States of America, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Australia,
Indonesia, Japan, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation; as well to
those individuals and groups in and out of our homeland who believed in
the justness of our cause and who were with us through thick and thin in
our long struggle for justice and peace, we convey our sincerest
gratitude.
Thank you and May Allah swt be with all of us.
Wa billahi tawfiq wa’l hidaya.
Wassalamo ‘alaykom wa Rahmatullahi wa barakatuho.
MILF Website
links:
BANGSMORO FRAMEFORK
OTHER HUMAN RIGHTS PROMOTIONS WEBSITES
PROTECTION AND PROMOTION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
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