Journey to Nowhere

Hong Kong’s Victoria Park was so packed yesterday that every inch of its ground was occupied. People gathered there for the candlelight vigil in commemoration of those who died during China’s crackdown on the pro-democracy movement 20 years ago.

The organizer of the rally, Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, said there were 150,000 people in the park. Well, there may be dispute about the actual figure, but by being there myself, I can testify that there has not been a rally in recent years that can draw so many people. Everywhere – the lawns, the football pitches, the park paths – was thronged with people. Many people just stood, against each other, for the whole two-hour vigil.

People stand for the whole vigil. They cannot even see the main stage and big screen. But they stand and just listen.

The big turnout is the pride of Hong Kong, where people demonstrate that a clear conscience is what matters in life – the economic prosperity in China and the prosperity it brings Hong Kong do not mean that the crackdown had not happened, the history should be distorted and the tragedy should be forgotten, as suggested by Hong Kong’s Chief Executive Donald Tsang on the eve of the June 4 vigil.

In his position, Tsang has every reason to say that in order to curry the favor of the Beijing authority who appointed him to the Hong Kong top job. Boss must be flattered, conscience can be sacrificed. That is his credo. I hope he would pray to his God for forgiveness – he goes to church every morning before going to work.

In the rally, around me, I saw faces that are obviously from mainland China. They took photos and sang songs along. I was glad they got the chance to breathe some fresh air of political and speech freedom.

Hong Kong is the only place on the Chinese soil that holds a large rally every year on June 4. In Macau this year, there were only dozens of people participating in a June 4 rally.

If you plan to visit Hong Kong, one of the times of the year you may consider coming is around June 4, when the Hong Kong people attend an annual rally in memory of those killed in the June 4 democracy movement, in defiance of the Beijing government’s wish to silence its people on what happened 20 years ago.

The memorial rally has been going on for the past 20 years, since June 4 1989, with the rally always held in the Victoria Park, on Hong Kong Island. And each year there is always a large turn out. If you want to see the soul of Hong Kong behind all the high rise buildings and busy traffic, you can always find it in the evening of June 4, in the Victoria Park lit up by candles.

This year, a bigger turn out is expected, because of the gaffe of the city’s Chief Executive Donald Tsang. When asked about June 4 in the Legislative Council two days ago, he said, “I understand Hong Kong people’s feelings about June 4, but the incident happened many years ago. The country’s development in many areas has since achieved tremendous results and brought economic prosperity to Hong Kong. I believe Hong Kong people will make an objective assessment of the nation’s development.”

What is more, he claimed his view represents the general view of Hong Kong people. He later apologized, saying that he did not mean what he said.

His remarks and apology is total nonsense and much ridicule, of course. His stupidity is simply hard to imagine. To say that your view represents the view of Hong Kong people, while you are appointed by the Beijing government, not elected by the Hong Kong people?

And what those in the top can do just to curry flavor to stay in power, and as a result make a fool of himself, look nowhere than Mr Tsang.

What is more, Mr Tsang, are you telling us that it is alright that you kill people, as long as you can get rich later?

A leader of no soul and a city of people trying to clinging to their souls. That is Hong Kong. So come to Hong Kong around June 4 to see the struggle.

I was glad to join the democracy march yesterday with thousands of people, not only because it was a way to express myself, but also I saw and felt in the march the diversity and independent thinking that Hong Kong is losing gradually under the post-1997 governments.

I cannot tell you how much disappointment I have in the Hong Kong government headed by Chief Executive Donald Tsang. The latest saga is the appointment of deputy secretaries and political assistants under the so called “accountability” system. When the city is not pushing ahead with its democracy, our Chief Executive is pushing for this appointment accountability system. But when its people have no vote and no say in the government affairs, who are these officials accountable to? Of course not to us. And certainly to Mr Tsang, their boss, who appoints them.

Do you see the irony here? When the people here are demanding democracy, the government is going the opposite way, under the fancy word of “accountability’.

The appointments of deputy secretaries and political assistants have been under barrage of attacks by the wide local community for its lack of transparency and the showing of nepotism. What are these appointees’ responsibilities? How were they selected? Based on what criteria are they remunerated? The government has never been able to give us satisfactory answers. Not to mention that it did not come up with fuzzy answers until pressurized.

When the controversy has evolved to the detriment of his reputation, Mr Tsang came to the Legislative Council, urging the community to let the dust settle, so that the community can focus on the livelihood issues.

Give me a break! Does he know that we people want quality of life as well? We want clean air, clear sky and open space. We are not individuals just wanting to make a living and surviving on this planet. This government knows only to follow the talk of its boss in the mainland and is glaringly out of touch with the pulse of the city that it governs. That is why people here go to the democracy march year after year on 1 July, the Hong Kong back to China day.

A sign of relief. The Olympics torch relay in Hong Kong is finally over! Despite the excitement of crowds for the relay, shown on TV, I, as many others whose voice can be hardly heard, was just indifferent, and even numb.

Who are on the list of torch bearers? Besides some athletes, there are 21 business tycoons, 13 politicians and eight artists (singers/movie stars), all pro-China. Not even one grassroots representative or a member of the democratic camp was invited to relay the torch. 

Whenever I hear that Beijing Olympics should not be boycotted because sport has nothing to do with politics, I just want to laugh. Better give some other reason than this! Sport has been, and is always intertwined with politics. Hong Kong’s torch relay list of bearers speaks volume. Not to mention the vehement patriotism shown across China.

And there are just so many things that give me the sense that the Hong Kong torch relay is not a cause for jubilation. There are: the visa curb because of the Olympics, which causes so much inconvenience to so many travellers/business people; the turning away of Danish artist Jens Galschiot; and quiz of potential protesters by police ahead of the torch relay. I cannot but feel puzzled as to why those appearing on the TV seemed so excited.

The China Government dictated today that Hong Kong people can only choose their head of government in 2017 – 10 years from now – I hope I am still alive. As for the universal suffrage for legislative council (i.e. parliament), that will be implemented after the universal suffrage of the chief executive of Hong Kong. No timeline has been set on this.

In the public consultation carried out by the Hong Kong government earlier, over 50% of the Hong Kong people support universal suffrage of chief executive and legislative council in 2012. However, our current chief executive Donald Tsang recommended to the China central government that it is better for Hong Kong to have the universal suffrage in 2017, though he admitted that over 50% of the Hong Kong people want universal suffrage in 2012.

He is appointed by the China Government and knows what his boss wants. So to no one’s surprise, the China Government has adopted his suggestions.

And do not imagine that we can have real universal suffrage in 10 years time. Who can be the candidates and how are they produced? We, Hong Kong people, have no say on the rule of the election game. Will you trust the China government to allow Hong Kong real democracy when it dictates that this city’s people can only choose their government head, not to mention legislative council, in ten years time? The answer is abundantly clear.

Of course, it is understandable that why China does not want Hong Kong to have democracy. It is the fear of people in Mainland China to demand democracy, following the example set by Hong Kong.

Hong Kong won’t have real democracy, unless there is major change in China politically. And I don’t see that is coming. So I don’t see Hong Kong people can have real democracy anytime soon. Not in 10 years – that is for sure.

I was shocked to hear from the news that the Hong Kong Canto pop song “At the foothill of the Lion Mountain” (獅子山下) was named the most well known “national affair song”(國情歌) in a survey among secondary students. How was it possible that the song is about national affair when the song, as every Hong Kong adult knows, is the theme song of a very popular TV series in the 70s about the lives of Hong Kong people? It is a song about Hong Kong, a city, not China, the whole country.
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I am not blaming the secondary students for the survey result, but I do blame the organization which conducted the survey, the Boys and Girls’ Club of Hong Kong. This was a glaring distortion of historical facts. How can the NGO did such a thing to the yet-to-mature minds of secondary students? It is obvious that history is easy to distort, not to mention a survey.

The reason to distort history in this case is understandable. The buzz word in the town nowadays is patriotism and nationalism. So even if something has nothing to do with nationalism/national affair, some people will make it possible that “this something” finds its way to relate to it.

Hong Kong, sadly, is losing its diversity and identity day by day.