Philippines and Mindanao
Looking on the Philippines, it has the longest running struggle for the Moro people right to self-determination and the cry for merdeka or maradeka had been since 1968 when Datu Udtog Matalam explosively announced the formation of the Mindanao Independence Movement (MIM) and the Muslim fundamentalist Ansar el Islam led by prominent Muslim leaders such as Philippine Muslim Senator Dr. Ahmad Domocao Alonto while leading the Islamic revival movement also supported the formation of the secessionist Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF). The over four decades of Moro struggle asserts freedom from Philippine colonialism as argued by Moro stalwarts Prof. Nur Misuari of MNLF and late Ustadz Salamat Hashims of MILF. Until the present the struggle for freedom and independence still lived on to the younger Moro generation. At the legal front, the Maradeka (literally means freedom) became seen at the forefront of a non-violent political movement enjoying the democratic space afforded to many political groups and activists in the Philippines.
Analytically looking at the history of long peace process since 1975, while East Timor was able to attain full self governance thru a United Nations brokered Determination Vote and Free Aceh Movement acceded to a Norway brokered peace talks, the Moro rebel groups undergone series of protracted peace and a never ending peace process employed only as a counter-insurgency strategy of the Philippine government and not meant sincerely to achieve final solution to the hostilities in the southern part of the Philippines, Mindanao. The double talk policy of the government only exasperated young Moro and students and opting to join extremist group, such as the Abu Sayyaf to mount a violent attacks against the deceptive policy of the Philippine government. The recent debacle in the rejection by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front of the Philippine government's counter-proposal to the former proposal for compromise accession to sub-state formula will put to limbo and further stall the peace negotiations.
Read more about this topic: Merdeka