The HK gambit and our Bangsa Moro experiment

Creating and managing two systems within one country is, as events now abundantly prove in Hong Kong, is definitely easier said than done. When the United Kingdom of Great Britain handed over this highly prosperous enclave in 1997 to the Peoples' Republic of China, Beijing promised the HongKongers that they would be allowed to continue enjoying their democratic rights and practices. Not only that, in due time, they would be granted full and universal suffrage in electing their leaders, particularly, in choosing their Chief Executive Officer. The failure to make good on that draconian promise is now the main bone contention of the five-day ''people power revolution" erupting in Hong Kong.

We fully understand the difficulties confronting the politicians in Beijing, on the one hand, and the administrators in Hong Kong, on the other hand. The leadership of President Xi Jimping of China is being tested and the Communist Party can easily declare his position vacant,  if and when he blinks and be outwitted by the protesters led by a cross section of the Hong Kong community comprising of students,  Gen Y working class revolutionaries, young and dynamic businessmen and entrepreneurs, and highly educated professionals, many of whom have been schooled in London, Canada, Australia,  and the USA. This is a clash between the dyed-in-the-wool party  ideologues in Mainland China, on one hand, and the Western democrats among the younger generations.

And so, the stakes are very high in this game and gambit. The political propagandists of the Party in Beijing are seeing the hands of USA behind this political drama. If not for the ubiquitous presence of western media, particularly CNN, BBC, Bloomberg and a dozen others, the Party is very experienced in extinguishing these sorts of ''rebellion'' among the young and the non-conformists. They could easily use a clever concoction of mixed brutal force, psy-war tactics and deft diplomacy, tear gas and dialogue . But they could not easily move because the media people are recording on a 24/7 round-the-clock basis, and the whole world is watching. Taiwan, Vietnam , the Philippines and the whole ASEAN are watching too.

The world watchers, including UK, USA, the EU and other countries, as well as UN are waiting for China to commit a major ''faux pas'', because the Hong Kong gambit will make or unmake China's brand of international politics, that curious mix of military bullying and political diplomacy. We, in the Philippines, are interested for a number of reasons. For one, we want to know if China is strong enough to manage an internal conflict, considering that it projects strength in bullying us in Spratlys and in Scarborough. Then, we also want to learn from Chinese wisdom in relation to our Bangsa Moro autonomy experiment. Since China is noted for imitating foreign brands, we can reverse the game now and copy from China's gambit if it wins this Hong Kong game.

The Bangsa Moro experiment is a very delicate one, perhaps even an intricate game of making two systems work within one sovereign nation. Manila, like Beijing, would insist to continue exercising sovereign State inherent powers, foreign affairs, national defense, eminent domain, police power and to a certain extent, taxation, over the Bangsa Moro. But, human nature being what it is, our Muslim brothers would progressively want more and more autonomy and even independence. How to balance these two extremes is a very difficult challenge. At least, the Hong Kong gambit lasted for sixteen years before Hong Kong is ready to become another Taiwan. There is no telling for how long the Bangsa Moro achieves independence from what they call down there, the ''imperial Manila." History keeps repeating itself because people and nations never learn from it.