Press Statement

From Ref:

Atty. Zainudin S. Malang, IMRI, LL.M.
Bangsamoro Center for Law and Policy (0928-5000-432)

For the past few years, negotiations between the GRP and the MILF panels have been wracked by instability and uncertainty.  Particularly in the past few months, frustrations over delays and backtracking on previously agreed upon consensus on ancestral domain has led to numerous outbreaks of fighting and threatened a complete collapse of the peace talks.  The sense of civil society in the conflict affected areas of Mindanao was that resumption of widespread hostilities was a certainty.  Confidence in the peace process was almost nil. Continue reading →

by Ishak Mastura

What is really at stake in the Mindanao peace process?  In my last post I told you about the possibility of a “Brave New War” in Mindanao.  Now I want to tell you why the Moro revolutionary fronts are moving to center-stage and a dynamic interaction with the international community is taking place with them as it affects other “war theaters” in the Islamic world.  Based on what CSIS calls “research on research” in my own quest for the link between ethno-nationalist insurgency and transnational violent extremism, here is a preliminary distillation of my research and my own thoughts on the matter. Continue reading →

by Ishak Mastura

What many people in the Mindanao peace groups don’t realize is that in the security sector abroad the Mindanao Conflict is being discussed as being on the cusp of a “Brave New War” (a term from the 2007 book Brave New War: The Next Stage of Terrorism and the End of Globalization by John Robb) unless the peace process succeeds and a peace agreement is signed.  A more dire warning is if the current Moro Nationalist leadership of the MILF (or the few MNLF still fighting the government left in Sulu who have not joined up with the Abu Sayyaf or proliferated into other more nebulous factions) passes away without leaving a solid foundation for a Moro Nationalist legacy then it is best to prepare for a Southern Thailand situation or a Nigerian scenario in Mindanao in the next few years.  Mind you security experts are saying that this “brave new war” is unwinnable as shown by the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan unless the “nationalist” cause unites the partisans and the occupation by foreigners ends.  Hence, here the only betting there is on the table is – do you support the peace process or not?  If you oppose the peace process and the concomitant peace negotiations with the MILF as I said better prepare for a “brave new war” scenario in the next decades (unless of course the whole world will experience “peak oil” wherein the energy that runs the world will be in terminal decline, which means only the richest Armies can afford to fly planes and helicopters much less drive a truck). Continue reading →