Patrick Poon the Naive and Stupid
Half a million people in Hong Kong took to street on 1 July 2003 to protest against the anti-subversion law proposed by the Hong Kong government based on Article 23 of the Hong Kong Basic Law - Hong Kong's mini-constitution. The big turnout shocked not only the Hong Kong government, but also the generally politically indifferent Hong Kong public, since it was then only seven years after Hong Kong's handover from British colonial rule to China.
The mass turnout manifested Hong Kong people's fear of losing basic freedoms, such as freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, and Beijing's promise of maintaining "One Country, Two Systems" as highlighted in the "Joint Declaration of the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the People's Republic of China on the Question of Hong Kong" signed in 1984, which is also commonly known as "Sino-British Joint Declaration" and incorporated into Hong Kong laws.
One of the more obvious reasons was that a number of Hong Kong people used to flee from Mainland China in the 1950s - 1970s where they or their parents experienced a lot of hardships during the "Three Years of Great Chinese Famine", "Anti-Rightists Movement", and "Cultural Revolution". In addition, the Tiananmen Square crackdown on 4 June 1989 also fueled more fear of Communist rule among Hong Kong people.
Nevertheless, as ever people on the move, Hong Kong people are very pragmatic. Despite all these fears, most of us quickly became amnesiac and swiftly embraced doing business in China again, in particular through exploiting cheap labour in Mainland China and making hot money through the property market. History? Fear? Freedom? All these simply are not as sexy as the smelly RMB notes.
Nearly eleven years have passed. China has become the second largest economy in the world. What we have been hearing from the Chinese officials or those pro-Beijing figures in Hong Kong who are afraid of not pleasing the Chinese Communist Party enough to become a member of the small circle Election Committee of the Chief Executive of Hong Kong or gaining a place as a member of the Political Consultative Committee in Beijing or even in a small city in Guangdong. Being a rich, obedient and shameless pro-Beijing figure is considered to be more respectful that those who take to street to fight for freedom and democracy.
We can no longer rely on the elites who are in their 50s or 60s to fight for freedom and democracy as vested interests, either monetary or political, have eroded their passion for real grassroots pro-democracy movements. "Three Years of Great Famine"? "Anti-rightist Movement"? "Cultural Revolution"? "Tiananmen Square crackdown"? Come on, these people now just think they are "historical events". These "historical events" could be selectively studied in schools. But these people would complain why some people are so persistent in recalling these "historical events". To these people, money and economic interests are definitely always more important than "history" and "fact".
Most of us, who are in our 30s or 40s and well-educated, are having lots of excuses of being busy with family and providing the "best education" for children (or showing off to help children to enter international schools or elite schools?). Yes, many claim that they are "concerned" about "social issues" and "national issues" (don't know why just "national issues" but not "global issues - aren't we in Internet age? Are we still waiting for Columbus to explore the New World for us? Aren't we using WhatsApp, Facebook and/or Instagram, etc, to communicate with our friends all over the world?), BUT (oh yes, I need a capitalized "BUT" here as all these excuses - oh, sorry, I shouldn't say that these are excuses. I'm so mean and inconsiderate. Shame on me!) they cannot sacrifice their time of doing the realistic things, such as finding their children a really nice and elite schools, for doing something "unrealistic and naive", such as taking to street to fight for freedom and democracy. Freedom and democracy are important to their children? Ah, yes. They might think they are, but it shouldn't be THEY who are so well-educated and better-off to take part in THESE ACTIVITIES. Some would even say: "Well, Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997. That's a fact. We can't do anything to change it. What's point of taking part in demonstrations? They are useless!!!!!"
So, what is left? Who can we rely on in our society who are not afraid or don't think too much about their own interests? Shamelessly, we relied on a large group of brave and selfless secondary school students to take the lead. Yes, they are students but they are more brave, knowledgeable and genuine than many self-sufficient adults like us. The most prominent among these students groups is "Scholarism". Such a good name. Many of them are brighter than many so-called scholars. Over the past two years, we relied so much on their efforts in reminding so many people in Hong Kong that we need to treasure the freedoms we used to them for granted.
So, it's now early March 2014. We have seen so much violence and increasing censorship against the media - the most recent one of Kevin Lau, former chief editor of Mingpao, who was stabbed at daytime and is now still lying in the intensive care unit. (Oh, well. Right. Some pro-Beijing figures would claim that it has nothing to do with media censorship. Do we really believe that shit? Excuse my lowly-educated language.) And, Beijing officials are telling us that there are such and such and such and such and such...pre-conditions for universal suffrage in Hong Kong. And, although China is still not yet a democratic country - no direct election, judicial independence and not to even mention separation of powers, Beijing officials, many of whom didn't even study law or international law, self-sufficiently tell us that many of us, Hong Kong people, don't understand the bloody (oh, yes, sorry for my language again and I'm not THAT "civilized" in the Mainland Chinese official sense as I didn't study Communism, Marxism and Socialism in China) HONG KONG BASIC LAW and the bloody (oh, sorry) INTERPRETATIONS of THE STANDING COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL PEOPLE'S CONGRESS (again, sorry for my bloody, er, sorry, lowly educated language that has degraded the "honourably" "bloody" (er, sorry again) and "respectable" "shitty" (oops, sorry!) "GRANDPA" - the Central Government).
So, "boiling frog in warm water"? Who invented this stupid phrase? (Oh, sorry, I'm so naive and stupid to be so cynical.) I'm spending so much time to write this shitty piece to try to understand if we are being "boiled in warm water"? No, I feel that we are JUST (sorry for the capital letters, I don't mean to be a drama queen...) right in the boiling water! Anyway, who care about this shitty piece and who care about freedom and democracy? Tomorrow will be another busy day for better-off parents to take their children to various weekend classes to gain points of swimming, dancing, painting or playing the piano, and another busy day for making money, and another busy day for us to listen to the shitty (oh, sorry, I'm just so shamelessly uneducated) speeches of the "honourable" Beijing officials and their servants.
Half a million people in Hong Kong took to street on 1 July 2003 to protest against the anti-subversion law proposed by the Hong Kong government based on Article 23 of the Hong Kong Basic Law - Hong Kong's mini-constitution. The big turnout shocked not only the Hong Kong government, but also the generally politically indifferent Hong Kong public, since it was then only seven years after Hong Kong's handover from British colonial rule to China.
The mass turnout manifested Hong Kong people's fear of losing basic freedoms, such as freedom of speech and freedom of assembly, and Beijing's promise of maintaining "One Country, Two Systems" as highlighted in the "Joint Declaration of the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Government of the People's Republic of China on the Question of Hong Kong" signed in 1984, which is also commonly known as "Sino-British Joint Declaration" and incorporated into Hong Kong laws.
One of the more obvious reasons was that a number of Hong Kong people used to flee from Mainland China in the 1950s - 1970s where they or their parents experienced a lot of hardships during the "Three Years of Great Chinese Famine", "Anti-Rightists Movement", and "Cultural Revolution". In addition, the Tiananmen Square crackdown on 4 June 1989 also fueled more fear of Communist rule among Hong Kong people.
Nevertheless, as ever people on the move, Hong Kong people are very pragmatic. Despite all these fears, most of us quickly became amnesiac and swiftly embraced doing business in China again, in particular through exploiting cheap labour in Mainland China and making hot money through the property market. History? Fear? Freedom? All these simply are not as sexy as the smelly RMB notes.
Nearly eleven years have passed. China has become the second largest economy in the world. What we have been hearing from the Chinese officials or those pro-Beijing figures in Hong Kong who are afraid of not pleasing the Chinese Communist Party enough to become a member of the small circle Election Committee of the Chief Executive of Hong Kong or gaining a place as a member of the Political Consultative Committee in Beijing or even in a small city in Guangdong. Being a rich, obedient and shameless pro-Beijing figure is considered to be more respectful that those who take to street to fight for freedom and democracy.
We can no longer rely on the elites who are in their 50s or 60s to fight for freedom and democracy as vested interests, either monetary or political, have eroded their passion for real grassroots pro-democracy movements. "Three Years of Great Famine"? "Anti-rightist Movement"? "Cultural Revolution"? "Tiananmen Square crackdown"? Come on, these people now just think they are "historical events". These "historical events" could be selectively studied in schools. But these people would complain why some people are so persistent in recalling these "historical events". To these people, money and economic interests are definitely always more important than "history" and "fact".
Most of us, who are in our 30s or 40s and well-educated, are having lots of excuses of being busy with family and providing the "best education" for children (or showing off to help children to enter international schools or elite schools?). Yes, many claim that they are "concerned" about "social issues" and "national issues" (don't know why just "national issues" but not "global issues - aren't we in Internet age? Are we still waiting for Columbus to explore the New World for us? Aren't we using WhatsApp, Facebook and/or Instagram, etc, to communicate with our friends all over the world?), BUT (oh yes, I need a capitalized "BUT" here as all these excuses - oh, sorry, I shouldn't say that these are excuses. I'm so mean and inconsiderate. Shame on me!) they cannot sacrifice their time of doing the realistic things, such as finding their children a really nice and elite schools, for doing something "unrealistic and naive", such as taking to street to fight for freedom and democracy. Freedom and democracy are important to their children? Ah, yes. They might think they are, but it shouldn't be THEY who are so well-educated and better-off to take part in THESE ACTIVITIES. Some would even say: "Well, Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997. That's a fact. We can't do anything to change it. What's point of taking part in demonstrations? They are useless!!!!!"
So, what is left? Who can we rely on in our society who are not afraid or don't think too much about their own interests? Shamelessly, we relied on a large group of brave and selfless secondary school students to take the lead. Yes, they are students but they are more brave, knowledgeable and genuine than many self-sufficient adults like us. The most prominent among these students groups is "Scholarism". Such a good name. Many of them are brighter than many so-called scholars. Over the past two years, we relied so much on their efforts in reminding so many people in Hong Kong that we need to treasure the freedoms we used to them for granted.
So, it's now early March 2014. We have seen so much violence and increasing censorship against the media - the most recent one of Kevin Lau, former chief editor of Mingpao, who was stabbed at daytime and is now still lying in the intensive care unit. (Oh, well. Right. Some pro-Beijing figures would claim that it has nothing to do with media censorship. Do we really believe that shit? Excuse my lowly-educated language.) And, Beijing officials are telling us that there are such and such and such and such and such...pre-conditions for universal suffrage in Hong Kong. And, although China is still not yet a democratic country - no direct election, judicial independence and not to even mention separation of powers, Beijing officials, many of whom didn't even study law or international law, self-sufficiently tell us that many of us, Hong Kong people, don't understand the bloody (oh, yes, sorry for my language again and I'm not THAT "civilized" in the Mainland Chinese official sense as I didn't study Communism, Marxism and Socialism in China) HONG KONG BASIC LAW and the bloody (oh, sorry) INTERPRETATIONS of THE STANDING COMMITTEE OF THE NATIONAL PEOPLE'S CONGRESS (again, sorry for my bloody, er, sorry, lowly educated language that has degraded the "honourably" "bloody" (er, sorry again) and "respectable" "shitty" (oops, sorry!) "GRANDPA" - the Central Government).
So, "boiling frog in warm water"? Who invented this stupid phrase? (Oh, sorry, I'm so naive and stupid to be so cynical.) I'm spending so much time to write this shitty piece to try to understand if we are being "boiled in warm water"? No, I feel that we are JUST (sorry for the capital letters, I don't mean to be a drama queen...) right in the boiling water! Anyway, who care about this shitty piece and who care about freedom and democracy? Tomorrow will be another busy day for better-off parents to take their children to various weekend classes to gain points of swimming, dancing, painting or playing the piano, and another busy day for making money, and another busy day for us to listen to the shitty (oh, sorry, I'm just so shamelessly uneducated) speeches of the "honourable" Beijing officials and their servants.
