Instead, the guns are pointed at those who criticize her militarist policy. Since the 2004 elections, members and officers of the Suara Bangsamoro Partylist are being targeted in the anti-terror propaganda of the military and police.
On Human Rights Day last year, streamers hung in all parts of Cotabato City declaring that Suara Bangsamoro and its secretary-general, Zaynab Ampatuan, are terrorists and that the group is a communist front.
The allied organizations of Suara Bangsamoro, Kawagib and Liga ng Kabataang Moro, were also accused of the same thing, along with their lead officers such as Sittie Rajabia Sundang and Michael Dumamba.
The terror and communist tagging of the president gives the military, police and local politicians the license to silence our ranks.
Rahman Camili, a member of the Suara Bangsamoro in Madaum, Davao del Norte, was was abducted by armed men in bonnets in December of last year. He was shot in the stomach and leg and remains missing.
We call on our Moro brothers and sisters Moro people to actively participate in street rallies and call for the junking of the anti-terror bill.
An anti-terror law will surely give teeth to the president to silence her critics. But it will also spawn a collective decision of the people to junk not only this law but also the one who uses it for her own political agenda in the coming May 2007 elections and beyond.
(Amirah Ali Lidasan is the national vice-chairperson of the Suara Bangsamoro partylist organization. She can be reached at suarabm@yahoo.com. Click here to view her previous column.)
[tags]davao today, mindanao, moros, muslim, mindanao conflict, suara bangsamoro, terrorism, anti-terrorism bill, gloria macapagal-arroyo, philippines[/tags]
Peace Process, Terrorism
