BANGSAMORO...

cause made him a symbol of resistance for many Palestinians, but also led to criticism and accusations of corruption and terrorism.

These examples of political leaders illustrate that former rebels turned politicians often face significant challenges in transitioning from a revolutionary movement to leading the government, including the need to balance competing interests, manage a complex political landscape, and uphold the principles that drove the revolution in the first place.

Moreover, some may apply the principle of “weatherweather lang yan” which means leadership in the government is just seasonal. Before it was the time of the traditional politicians, then the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF), and now the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). Thus some of them may be corrupted by the internal cultural dynamics that the institution has been deeply embedded with. Therefore, we can see that there are several factors that revolutionary groups may become corrupt when they hold power.

The following are red flags that we need to see if they are present in the current regional government in the Bangsamoro. The principle that “power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely” may be present if there can no longer be checks and balances. This means that holding power can bring temptations and lead to abuse of power and corruption.

In terms of decommissioning of combatants, we also need to look at the system in place. If proper systems of transparency, proper monitoring, and evaluation are not in place then this may lead to lack of accountability. Thus, revolutionary groups may lack established systems of checks and balances to hold leaders accountable in programs and activities that are spent from the taxes collected from the people.

There may also be instances when those who lead the revolution may have broken idealism, which means that the ideals and values that drove the revolution may be forgotten or disregarded as leaders focus on maintaining power.

And lastly, when the system of conflict and violence became a cycle, the problems now become systemic. Corruption may be deeply ingrained in the political and economic systems, making it difficult to eradicate.

As a former member of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority, I know how hard it is to work in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao where there are several matters and concerns that are urgent and need to be addressed properly. But if those mentioned are not properly addressed by the Government of the Day with the help of all stakeholders, then we need to ask ourselves, “what are we transitioning for?”

If you ask me, we should move forward in transitioning to set proper institutions that will put in place the rule of law and justice mechanisms. Oftentimes justice is very much neglected by peacebuilders. Most people in the government think that you have to forgive the various violent actors because that is the only way to agree to peace if they know they will not be put in prison or tried and face the consequences of their previous acts.

We need to have a strong national government that will be able to deal with the violations of human rights, and criminal acts (such as graft and corruption). Otherwise we will never solve the problem.

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. Mussolini Sinsuat Lidasan is Executive Director of the Al Qalam Institute of the Ateneo de Davao University. He was a member of the Bangsamoro Transition Commission from 2017 to 2019, Member of Parliament of the Bangsamoro Transition Authority from 2019 to 2022)