The silent revolution (Lee Yee)
Before democrats’ primaries, except for one or two Hong Kong government officials jibber-jabbering sporadically, major bureaucrats from Beijing and Hong Kong had been very reticent about it. But afterward, Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, the Liaison Office of the Central People's Government and Carrie Lam denounced in tandem that the primaries were a breach of the Basic Law, the National Security Law as well as the electoral law, yet without uttering which article of them. Why? Perhaps it was due to another wrongly projected scenario by the Chinese Communist Party. In view of the media being nonchalant about the primaries and Tai Yiuting being unconfident in drawing in one-tenth of the pro-democracy electorate(170 thousand voters), they had thought that citizens were apathetic towards the primaries. If that was what it all amounted to, there was nothing to worry about, and they would surely be glad to see it end in fiasco.
Who would have thought that as many as 610 thousand voters who had kept a low profile would have swarmed the polling stations to take the whole world aback? Though the communist China and Hong Kong hastily took remedial actions right away, it was already too late. The primaries already shocked the world.
A wise young man has called on me lately. He put forward a few questions, the first of which was: Which four among all major events in the past year including 6.9, 6.12, 6.16, 7.1, 7.21, 8.31, siege to the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Polytechnic University do you pick to best encapsulate the entire course of the movement?
My answer was: Being a watcher and critic, I’m far from being able to encapsulate the entire movement, but since the start of the anti-extradition movement, there have been a lot of incidents boggling my mind, or more specifically getting me awakened, while changing my perceptual knowledge thoroughly.
The first event is 6.12. Before that day, I had not believed the extradition amendment bill would be laid aside for the communist China and Hong Kong’s resolve was so decided and the pro-establishment faction, the majority in the Legislative Council, had declared support for it, not to mention the government proclaimed on the night right after the 6.9 one million people demonstration that the Second Reading debate on the bill would be resumed. I was concerned about the safety of the protesters who charged, and deemed the radical behaviors useless. Though I understood why the young people did so, I did not find the valiant attempts in the protests desirable. After 6.12, my conception has altered and the five appeals put forward since have been prevailing.
The second event is 6.28. Nothing happened in Hong Kong that day when leaders of various countries converged for G20 summit in Osaka, Japan. Less than a week before, some young people had advocated crowdfunding 3 million dollars for advertising on front pages of influential newspapers in different languages all around the world. Fundraising aside, based on my half-a-century experience in news publication, it is hardly possible to pull it off. But they did it jaw-droppingly well beyond doubt. Even though the leaders of G20 did not react forthwith, the global attention being drawn to Hong Kong and the Hong Kong’s story being ushered into the international arena by the advertisement are indisputable facts. The thought-provoking courage of the young people reshaped my appraisal of the new generation of Hong Kong.
The third event is 7.21+8.31. This two-in-one incident totally transmuted my impression on Hong Kong police. Citizens come into contact with police officers more than any civil servants. The complexion of the police is the complexion of the city. When police officers become public security officers, Hong Kong becomes a place I am no longer familiar with.
The forth event is siege to the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Polytechnic University plus the District Council election. Before the District Council voting, young people had kept on charging valiantly with support from the public, and some citizens had complained about traffic inconvenience caused by the protests. When the day of election was nearing, the society was surprisingly peaceful. Would ordinary citizens, mostly self-absorbed, support the protest? In the end, the turnout and results of the election were dumb-founding. The misjudgement by communist China and Hong Kong became laughingstock. The Chinese officials in charge of Hong Kong affairs stepped down or got demoted.
Every time my mind was boggled, I came at something in one way or another and was somehow awakened through self-reflection. Looking at the primaries of democrats under the threat of the National Security Law, I realized that Hong Kongers on the whole have completely mutated in the past year. All the events that all citizens can take part have been undergoing fundamental changes. Those who keep a low profile will creep into our view to take us aback.
A silent revolution is ongoing. There is no turning back for Hong Kong. When Hong Kongers reminisce about the current “darkest hour” in future, they will find out that in fact that was the “best time”.
(Lee Yee, a prominent political commentator in Hong Kong who embarked on a career of writing and subediting in 1956, has been contributing unremittingly political commentaries to the local press.)
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