The Economist

(Steven Felgate) #1

42 Asia The EconomistAugust 4th 2018


(^2) poverished Mindanao spawned a pletho-
ra of armed groups: some Muslim separat-
ists some communists some simply
violent criminals. Jihadists took advantage
of the general lawlessness to recruit fight-
ers to their cause.
After the peace agreement was signed
Congress shied away from passing the leg-
islation itentailed when current and for-
merMILFfighters killed 44 paramilitary
policemen operating against jihadists.
When Mr Duterte whose power base is in
Davao the largest metropolitan region in
Mindanao became president in 2016 he
said he was determined to complete the
peace process.
Yet Congress was still slow to pass the
legislation fearful lest it turn out to contra-
vene the country’s constitution. In 2008
the Supreme Court had declared a previ-
ous peace agreement unconstitutional so
infuriating one faction of the MILFthat it
broke away. The splinter group the Bang-
samoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF)
later pledged allegiance to Islamic State.
The Bangsamoro Organic Law may yet
be challenged in court. That is one reason
(admittedly of several) why Mr Duterte
has called for the constitution to be rewrit-
ten to turn the Philippines from a unitary
state into a federation.
A bloody attempt last year by groups
including Filipino adherents ofIS to cap-
ture and hold the city of Marawi was
crushed when the army laid siege for
months destroying the city to save it. In
that siege one notable Abu Sayyaf leader
Isnilon Hapilon was killed. YetBIFFguer-
rillas and Abu Sayyaf terrorists remain ac-
tive in the south as the latest bombing in
Basilan showed. Not just the government
but also the MILFchairman Al-Hajj Murad
Ebrahim believe peace and economic de-
velopment in Mindanao will defeat the ji-
hadists bydrying up their sources of re-
cruits. The battle for Marawi and now this
latest bombing are warnings that jihadists
are lurking ready to pounce unless Mr Mu-
rad and Mr Duterte make haste to end the
separatist conflict. 7
PACIFIC
PHILIPPINES OCEAN
INDONESIA
Sulu
Sea
MINDANAO
LUZON
South
China
Sea
MALAYSIA
Manila
Palawan
Davao
Marawi
Maguindanao
Zamboanga
Peninsula
Jolo Basilan
250 km
Proposed Bangsamoro region
Slumming it in South Korea
Fan fare for the common man


“M

Y WIFE can barely contain her
happiness” Park Won-soon the
mayor of Seoul South Korea’s capital
wrote on his Facebookpage on July 27th.
The occasion for her ecstasy was that an
electric fan had arrived in the household.
In the circumstances the excitement
was understandable. Five days earlier the
couple had moved into a rooftop shack in
Samyang-dong a dilapidated neigh-
bourhood on the northern fringes of the
megalopolis. The shack is not air-condi-
tioned and in the sweltering recent
weather—South Korea’s hottest on re-
cord—temperatures inside topped 50°C.
Plus the fan came with a message of
solidarity from the president Moon
Jae-in a political ally.
Mr Park who in June was elected to
his third term as mayor says that by
spending a month in Samyang-dong he
will learn first-hand about the difficulties
that Seoul’s poorer residents face. The
stunt has earned him a fair amount of
mockery. When City Hall workers deliv-
ered ready-made rice porridge to him
over the weekend onlookers questioned
the seriousness of Mr Park’s quest to
experience “ordinary life”. (City Hall said
the porridge was for a breakfast meeting
with neighbours.) Ha Tae-kyung from
the conservative opposition described
the move to the roof as a “comedy”. If the
mayor really wanted to know about
ordinary life he said “he should live in
the neighbourhood for his entire term.”
Locals queue up at all hours outside
the mayor’s temporary home to air their

grievances. Yet some are sympathetic.
“It’s a good thing he’s doing” says one
neighbour playing in the street with her
little grandson. “Why would I complain
about someone trying to understand
more about our lives?”
The mayor’s stint of living like com-
mon folk is a reminder that beyond the
city’s glitzy centre many Seoulites still
live in flimsy barely legal dwellings
similar to Mr Park’s temporary lodging.
These people cannot afford the capital’s
sky-high property prices. In many areas
particularly north of the Han river
houses are poorly equipped for Seoul’s
steamy summers and biting winters.
For a long time the city’s approach
was to raze such quarters and build bru-
tally utilitarian tower blocks in their
place says Rieh Sun-young an architec-
ture professor at the University of Seoul.
Yet such flats are still expensive and do
not always meet the needs of the people
they displace—for instance they are too
big for today’s smaller families couples
or young singles wishing to live alone.
Ms Rieh hopes that the mayor’s time on
the roof will help him develop a more
nuanced approach to urban regener-
ation. Widening streets refurbishing
houses and improving local transport
links libraries and child care would do
much more for deprived areas than
simply razing them to the ground.
Whether he learns any rooftop les-
sons or not Mr Park leaves his Samyang-
dong shack later this month to return to
his air-conditioned apartment.

SEOUL
The mayor of Seoul sleeps in a shack
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