Today, December 31, the last day of 2019, I return to my office to work. This is the first time that I can return to my office to work since November 11, when our campus was occupied by protesters and besieged by the police.
The original lock to my door was broken. Our facility management people installed a temporary lock for now, until the lock can be replaced properly. It is ugly and inconvenient - I don’t have the key to the temporary lock; hence I have to call the security guard to come to unlock it for me. But at least my office is secure now.
Even though the lock was broken, my office was essentially un-disturbed. At first, I couldn’t find a non-functional laptop computer, which I left in a bag in a chair by the window at the far end of my office. I thought it was stolen. That was puzzling. Why didn’t the thief take other things on my desk or bookshelves: hard disk drives, big monitor, chocolates, … The laptop was in a bag behind my desk, while so much was just laying around in the open.
Later the broken-down laptop was found in another room on the same floor. So really nothing was taken, as far as I can tell. It reinforces our impression that the protestors were mainly looking for a place to rest and eat. They were not intending to steal or break anything. My two apples sitting in the refrigerator in the pantry were also untouched.
As for me, I am grateful that I can return to work more or less normally. To celebrate, I bought chocolate for everyone in the office who came in today. They seem happy.
I also designed a new hip for my skinny dinosaur I made earlier from dried palm leaves. Now she can stand again. (I will explain the skinny dinosaur later.) Then I came home to have a quiet dinner with my wife. I am glad my 2019 ends on a high note.
The Siege of PolyU poses an existential threat to the university. Firstly, there are the obvious physical damages to the campus caused by the fires, destructions of classrooms and furniture, teargas, and more. The challenges to clean up, to repair, to rebuild. The costs in terms of money, time, attention.
Secondly, there is significant damage to the reputation of and confidence in the management. Many pro-establishment politicians are complaining that the university did a poor job educating the students, protecting the campus and the students. They are cutting off funding to the university, not only to upgrade and expand, but even to repair the campus. Many want to punish the university in some way. Some even say that the universities should be closed and students sent to the Mainland for education.
Thirdly, many students, present and potential, have lost their faith in the university. Most foreign students have returned home, some probably not to come back. Many are predicting the number of applications, both local and offshore, will drop significantly in the coming years. What good is a university without good students?
Fourthly, there is the self-doubt and soul searching. If the number of our own students participating in the confrontation and siege is really small, then how did we allow the siege to happen? Is it something in our management, operation, culture and values that led to the siege and conflagration? Whatever the numbers, our university is in the middle of the conflagration, and we suffered a lot from it, whether it is our own making, or due lately to external factors. What does that say about our values? Are we truly behaving honourably, worthy of an institute of higher education, making a positive contribution to the development of the community, turning out responsible citizens?
The way that we respond to the existential crisis tells us who we are, and whether we are worthy of survival and even prosperity. The soul searching starts now. I am also looking for inspirations from resources such as Jared Diamond’s “Upheaval”. In Upheaval, Diamond identifies “selective changes” that individuals and nations make in response to crises. For example, when Japan was threatened by American gunboats in 1853, it embarked on a rigorous modernisation which transformed Japan into a powerful country able to defeat Russia.
What selective changes is PolyU going to make in response to the siege of PolyU? Other than strengthening campus security?
As a matter of fact, what selective changes is Hong Kong going to make in response to the conflagration in the past half year? Other than giving the police the power to beat people up with impunity?
It is often said that Christmas is about peace, joy and love. Really? How can there be real peace when the rich and powerful exploit the poor and weak at will, seemingly without retribution? How can there be real joy when the wicked mock the oppressed - asking “where is your Jesus?” with malice and glee? Jesus certainly does not aim to bring the kind of superficial, wishy-washy non-confrontation that relies on the oppressed accepting their fate and suffering in silence. That is not salvation and surely not real peace. Jesus is not worthy of our faith if that is all that He brings.
Jesus is actually preaching a very subversive Gospel. Blessed are the poor, the meek, pure at heart, …, those who suffer for the sake of justice. - He said. We are to listen to God rather than man. God is for justice and real freedom that faith brings. These are our true values. If so, we should persevere in the face of persecution, even to die for our values. It is a fiercely committed faith, a fearless faith. Only this kind of faith brings true freedom.
Faith in the righteousness and sovereignty of God sets us free and gives us peace not just as a hope for the future, when God returns to punish the wicked and reward the faithful. Faith gives us peace in our mind even now, when evil still reigns.
Jesus does not seek to bring peace by overthrowing the oppressors with violent revolution. But Jesus is fearless in speaking against the hypocrites, the liars, the oppressors, the exploiters, the wicked. He did not keep quiet. Jesus heals the sick, feeds the hungry, comforts the disturbed. He did not simply tell the hungry to have faith and go in peace. Jesus empathises with the oppressed, and tells us to do the same.
Faith gives us peace of mind in the face of evil when (1) we know that we are doing the rich thing in the eye of God and (2) God reigns supreme. This is the kind of peace that Christmas brings. Are we worthy of such peace?
It is very sad and disturbing that many people on both sides of the conflict seem more keen to convince themselves of their own position, rather than genuinely trying to find a way out that is good for Hong Kong.
Starting with a government that is so intransigent that is infuriating both sides. The head of our supposedly efficient government, composed of Hong Kong people supposedly loving Hong Kong, seem to care only about losing face. While Hong Kong people tear each other to pieces, she and her cronies don’t want to appear to be weak - no compromises of any kind. A piece of unfeeling stone does not make a good government.
Those who support the government and the police action try to convince us why the position of the government is the right one, and the police have to take the action to suppress the violence. That is fair - we can discuss the merits of the arguments on with side, with facts, and sound reasoning. But why do you have to insult people by calling them “cockroaches”, “yellow corpses” and worse. As pointed out numerous times, it demeans and dehumanises people and it is a dangerous step towards escalating hatred. Unless that is really the intention - to make the situation worse so that some people can benefit somehow. I shuddered to think why anybody would want to do that.
Insulting your opponent in not an effective way to win an argument. It merely serves to inflame people’s emotions and harden their positions, on both sides. It makes it harder and harder to sort out why each side holds their position, find common ground, and move forward.
Many protesters are no better. Not all police are bad and corrupt. Their family of event bad cops are innocent, they certainly do not deserve death. If the intention is to stop police brutality, this can only cause the opposite.
Why do people do it anyway? Why do people insist on insulting each other instead of putting forward their arguments in a way that makes it easier for the opponent to consider it calmly and positively? I have a feeling people cannot help themselves. When people do not accept their position, when they cannot win, their ego is hurt. They need to assuage their ego by saying that their opponent is stupid, that they are not worth discussing with because they are not human, that their opponents are bad people.
That is so sad because many people, on both sides, are obviously intelligent people. Many have been successful in their own professions. Perhaps this is more reason why they find it difficult to accept set backs, when people refuse to accept their position or argument.
To move forward, we need people on both sides to be able to reflect on themselves, stop doing things there are excessive, to stop making demands that are impossible for the their opponents to accept, to find common ground.
Blessed are the peace-makers. We have enough war-makers already. Where are the peace-makers when we need them? God have mercy on us.
There were many moments during the Dec 8 March which made me uncomfortable. Many protesters would hurl insults at the riot police.I was particular uneasy with curses against the families of the police.What if the riot police shot at us?With pepper spray, rubber bullets, tear gas, or water cannons?Even if the police did not respond, it is wrong to insult or wish injury on innocent people. For the police who used excessive force, they should be prosecuted, not persecuted.
It is also wrong to denigrate the police’ supposed poor academic achievements. What is wrong if some police have not done well in the HKCEE or DSE and studied YiJin? Academic performance is not indicative of a person’s character. YiJin was introduced to give young people a second chance, and many have taken that chance to develop a successful career, including becoming a police offier. On the other hand, going to university does not make one a better person by itself. It is not even a guarantee for success. There is also the irony that more and more police officers are university graduates, equating the “bad” police with YiJin is factually wrong. Worse, denigrating YiJin graduates antagonises a large population who are not police officers. In fact, many protesters are probably YiJin graduates themselves. But given the present atmosphere, they probably would be very hesitant to speak up. How ironic is that?
These abuses stay at the verbal level, and are largely non-criminal acts. But there are also many businesses broken into, and fires set. These are more than unacceptable behaviour, but truly criminal. We can boycott the businesses of people that we do not agree with. But it is wrong to vandalise people’s businesses. We can voice our displeasure against the verdict of the court that we disagree with. But it is wrong to attack and set fire to the law courts.
We are supposed to be striving for the lofty goals of political freedom and justice. We should be worthy of these goals. We cannot behave dishonourably, such as insulting innocent people, denigrating efforts for self-improvement, and wilfully damage other people’s property.
God would not want us to behave dishonourably while claiming to pursuer lofty goals.
My small group of 4 spent roughly 7 hours on the march yesterday. We arrived at the lawn at Victoria Park around 2:45 PM and waited patiently. We were able to get out of the park around 4:05 PM.We were stuck in Great George Street for almost an hour without making much progress. We then decided to make a detour, went out to Gloucester Road, came back through East Point Road, and rejoined the march at Sogo. We finally arrived at Charter Road around 7:30 PM.
There were so many people. From a bookshop on a high floor in Wanchai, I was able to take a glimpse of what the crowd looked like from above. It was really impressive. There must be hundreds of thousands. The exact number os not important. What is important is that there are so many people. Who marched patiently, orderly, and by and large, peacefully. To send another message to the establishment. That we are not happy with what they are doing. That we want and deserve a proper investigation of this whole mess which started with the government’s proposal of the law of extradition. That we want and deserve more open and fair elections. That we want and deserve more political freedom.
I am opposed to violent protests. But it is the right of the citizens to march peacefully for political freedom. I am so glad that we can return to what we HongKongers have been very proud of - peaceful marches where we can bring our children and elderlies.
At Victoria Park I met an elderly gentlemen who is 89 years old. He said he was at the July 1 march but it was very hot, and he has not come out to march again. This is the first time since the summer that he has come to the march.
At one point, riot police stood menacingly on the side, blocking some streets. The atmosphere was tense. Some protesters hurled insults. I think it was unnecessary and it made us nervous.
A moment later, police vans blocking the path of some marchers on Gloucester Road drive away, drawing loud cheers. The police seems to be making some effort to show welcoming restraint.
Many young ladies are leading the chants enthusiastically. That is consistent with the more prominent role that females seem to be taking in this movement.
The creative and artistic contributions to the movement is very pleasing and encouraging. Through many interviews, talks, articles, and books, it is evident that many people in the movement are very serious and thoughtful. This is far from the picture that many people are painting - that the protesters are young and ignorant, and manipulated by foreign governments and evil people. They are giving too little credit to our young people.
Throughout the march, before and after, there is so much solidarity among the people. People helping each other, paying the bus fare for people, warning each other about roadblocks, sharing resources, just being kind to each other in general. Some people keeping saying cynically that protesters are paid by foreign money. What I see on the street is that most marchers are motivated by a sense of solidarity.
This is more reason to shun violence and embrace peace. Creativity, beauty and elegance need space and a nurturing environment to grow and thrive. Violence begets evil and ugliness. Given the space, creativity will bring more subtle but lasting changes. Let us give our young people the peaceful environment to grow.
Many of them may be too idealistic and impatient, with insufficient sense of history, and the time and effort necessary for real change. But many are also very thoughtful, knowing well the risk they are taking and the price they are paying.
Change and history are made by these people. They are the ones who move the society forward.
God is on the side of the oppressed, weak and poor. Not the oppressor, rich and powerful. We just have to stick to peace, justice and love.
Now that we have the campus back, a lot of work is going on cleaning it up, checking for damages, fixing it up so that we can get back to work. On the other hand, the staff are frenetically working around the clock to get the students to finish their studies for the current (first) term, and to get ready for the coming (second) term. It is all part of the fire-fighting in response to the conflagration that consumed our campus. As intense and all-consuming as it is, it will be over in a few months. The garbage will be cleared away soon enough. The broken glasses will be replaced. The stolen and burnt tables and chairs will be replaced. The burnt walls will be cleaned or re-faced. The broken locks and door will be fixed. The students will complete their first term, and then start their second term more or less as usual. And all will be back to normal. Or will we?
Many students are deeply traumatised. Surely those who participated in the blockade feel defeated. Some must be despondent. Many have been arrested and may be prosecuted. Some may go to jail for lengthy sentences. Not just for PolyU, but also for many other universities, colleges, even secondary schools. Many who were involved but escape legal trouble will not feel much better.
Many who were not directly involved will also be deeply affected. Many foreign students have returned home, some never to return. Their home countries may hesitate to send their students to Hong Kong again.
Students from Hong Kong may worry about returning to campus. They may feel the university has not protected them and the campus well enough. They may have lost their faith in the established authorities in general. They may have acquired a much more pessimistic outlook in life. It has been said that many students turned aggressive and violent because they felt peaceful protests do not work, that they have no other choice but to be aggressive and violent. Now their “last hope” turns out to be futile as well. Now what?
Many people are trying to punish the universities, by with-holding needed funding for needed renovations, improvements, and expansions. Some have written off a whole generation of youths. Some made the insane proposal of shutting down the universities and sending all students to the Mainland. They do not seem to recognise that the majority of the university students and most of the staff did not participate in the violence, and do not deserve to be punished. This is a time to rebuild. The society needs a new generation of young people with a positive, constructive outlook. It is suicidal for a society to turn a whole generation into enemies. It may feel good for a while for some to extract “revenge” after the conflagration. But in the end it is the whole society that suffers.
Even if some students have committed crimes or other mistakes, they are still our students to be taught, to be educated. They are not our enemy. They remain our children, our students, our responsibilities.
And that is just the students. What about the staff? Most of the staff did not participate in the uprising. Many have tried to comfort the students under stress. Many have tried to convince the students to stay non-violent. It is the staff who will have to continue to teach the students while staying off the campus. It is the staff who will have to face the students who will return. It is the staff who will have to comfort those who are scared and worried, calm those who are angry, encourage those who are despondent. And rebuild the community.
When a group of people goes through a difficult time together. Particularly if they can overcome the challenge working hard together with a sense of purpose. It will forge a great sense of community, with a distinctive identity. What purpose do we have as a university? As the society of Hong Kong? What kind of identity do we want, as a university? As Hong Kong?
This challenge to rebuild a university community, to rebuild the Hong Kong community, is much harder than cleaning up a campus. And much more important. Are we up to it? How do we even begin? It is hard. But do we have a choice not to?
It appears that the occupiers have left our campus. The fire fighters have removed the dangerous goods.The police have finished collecting evidence. Finally, our management has re-taken control of the campus. This does not mean we can return to campus. Presumably, the campus is still hazardous, with broken glasses, rotting food, generally unhygienic environment, unknown effects of tear gas, …
Hence the main campus is still blockaded, this time from the inside, preventing entrance, and guarded by 30 additional security guards provided by some external agency.
I circumnavigated the main campus this morning (Saturday, November 30, 2019). The entrance at Core Y is still completely blocked.
The slopes behind core Z look ominous, even in broad day night.
The south side is completely blocked off.
And manned by many security guards.
The good thing is that they do not look too tense.
The foot-bridge leading to Core D is still completely blocked.
The foot-bridge leading to Core P is also blocked.
But Core M is now visible from the bridge - since the roof of the bridge has been burned off.
The campus looks bad. But it could have been worse. I shudder to imagine what it would look like had the police actually stormed the campus to capture the more than a thousand people inside.
As bad as it looks, I think the damage is mostly superficial. The garbage and rotting food can be cleared away quickly. The broken glasses and destroyed furniture can be replaced fairly quickly if we have the money. Some of the damages caused by the fires and flooding may take more time. The residues of the teargas may also take time. But much of the campus can be re-opened fairly quickly.
If we have the will, and I think we do, we can resume operations fairly quickly. Many people are in fact quick eager to return, to help to clean up, to resume.
Such a trauma cause much damage, physically and psychologically. But it also gives us a chance to see who is a leader, who can deal with challenges with a positive attitude, who can be counted on when the situation is difficult, who can come up with creative solutions to problems, who can help the team achieve our goals.
Shared intense experiences can forge a strong identity and sense of belonging. What kind of identity are we going to forge for our university through this experience? It is up to us. God help us with the recovery.
Both the blue and the yellow side of Hong Kong agree on one thing - the government is terribly incompetent. To the Yellow it is so because the government insists on treating the political issue as a matter of public security. To the Blue it is so because the government has not been able to suppress the uprising.
The opening up of the political process for wider participation, which was promised, has not happened. The police is getting increasingly brutal. The housing situation is absurd and hopeless. Upward mobility has become just a pipe dream for so many. And so the list of ills goes on.
We used to be so proud of our orderly, peaceful massive protest marches. Yet even when millions of people come out to the street to protest, paralysing all the traffic on the north side of Hong Kong Island, the government did not budge a bit. Instead, it arrogantly pushed ahead with a hugely unpopular, terrible law of extradition, dismissing the peaceful protests as just so much noise. It really pissed off the people
Some desperate people pushed harder, physically. The police fired tear gas. Some protesters started throwing bricks. More tear gas, rubber bullets, more powerful weapons. Some protesters started throwing fire bombs, and even more lethal stuff. And we ended up with massive disruption of traffic, and the siege of universities. Now some protesters are claiming that violent revolution is the only way forward. It seems the both sides got sucked into more and more violence, bit by bit. It was not something consciously planned after careful and clear thinking and strategising.
But is Hong Kong really so desperately bad that we must fight on the streets with our lives on the line? Judging from the actual behaviour, not the rhetoric, of the majority of the protesters, it is painfully clear that the even the majority of the protesters on the street and at the siege of the universities think no. Most were afraid to go to jail. Most were scared of being hurt. Most curious is that many of those who advocate violence were not on the frontline themselves. Yes, the situation is bad. The government is incompetent, even operating in bad faith. The police is brutal and arbitrary. But it is not so bad that we should kill ourselves - yet.
Hong Kong remains one of the freest societies in the world. We can come and go as we please, as long as we can afford it. We can criticise pretty much everybody, even the government, even the police, without having to go to jail, yet. We even have some elections. We would like more, of course. But it is not like we have none. We enjoy one of the highest living standards in the world. We can go to good universities if we have good academic results, or if we are rich.
Yes, the situation is deteriorating in many aspects. The establishment is trying to tighten control, to restrict participation in the political process, to control what we learn and what we say, exploitation is getting worse. We have to be vigilant. We have to have the courage to speak up. We have to fight to participate in the political process. We have to be willing to pay some price. To suffer a bit in terms of job and business opportunities. We can refuse to do business with the people who support the oppressors. We have to fight in the media. We have to fight in the elections.
The Siege of PolyU gave me a closer look of the leadership of the violent protests. Starting from the first day of the siege on Monday, Nov 11 to Saturday, Nov 16, I went back to campus every day to have a look at the campus, until the conflagration starting Saturday evening. I checked out the barricades, the damage, and the organization. I listened to the conversations among the protesters, in the chatrooms, and the pronouncements. I observed the weapons, tactics and justifications.
The level of violence escalated day by day. Bows and arrows were used more and more. More and more powerful means were adopted to throw petrol bombs. The violence grew more and more lethal. Violence is like a drug. You depend on more and more of it - until it kills you. You are not aware of the destructive effects on you when you are in the middle of it - until it is too late. But it is much more visible to people who observe form the outside.
The damages to the campus intensified as the days go by. More and more graffiti. More and more broken glasses. More and more classrooms and offices broken into. More and more tools, food, supplies, materials, chemicals stolen. Bit by bit they are killing the university. It is not just the hardware. Our students are hurt, physically, mentally and spiritually. Our staff are discouraged. The longer we have to stay away, the more the spirit, the relationship, the community dies. People look for alternatives. One day, the university is no more. Whether intentionally or not, they are killing our university.
Order deteriorated as the days go by. Canteens and toilets got messy. Many people do not seem to know that was going on. Usually some people on the front line decided to do something, and expected the rest to follow and provide support - even when the rest did not have a chance to participate in the decision making, and may not agree with the new direction or tactic. Many feel pressured to support more and more violent tactics because they did not wish to be considered to have abandoned those on the frontline. It is not just those who are inside the siege who feel pressured to follow. Many on the outside do not agree with the violence, yet feel pressured to not abandon those on the front line. Some may consider this kidnapping of the cause.
It is clearer and clearer that violence in this protest movement is not justified. It leads to nothing but senseless destruction, gives the protest a bad name, alienates people who might have been neutral or even moderately supportive, and gives the establishment an excuse to delay or even cancel the imminent elections.
Peaceful and lawful means may be slower. In the long one it takes more determination but may be much more powerful and long-lasting.
Our campus, like many other campuses around Hong Kong, have been taken over by protesters.
It appeared that on Monday, 11 Nov, protesters threw stuff down to the road leading to the cross-harbour tunnel from the footbridge between our campus and the Hung Hom Station. The police pursued some of protesters into the campus. Protesters started to barricade entrances to campus. Thus started the siege.
This is now the fifth day of the siege. All entrances are barricaded.
People can still generally snake through the barricades at the northern entrance (near Y block) and the southern (main) entrance (near A block).
Some businesses consider “blue” have been damaged. There are lots of graffiti. Some classrooms have been broken into - apparently for the furniture to be used as barricades and road blocks.
The main targets seems to be the road leading to the cross-harbour tunnel, and Chatham Road. Both are blocked completely most of time.
Occasionally, some brave souls had been able to move the obstacles aside for a few vehicles to sneak through. But more obstacles are thrown down from the bridges soon enough so that traffic is stopped again.
Dr. Sun Yat-Sin’s statue has been given a gas mask.
Most offices and the majority of the classrooms and laboratories seem intact. They do not appear to be targets of the protesters. They seem civil towards the staff and students who brave the siege to come to campus. Some security guards can be seen. I have met quite a few colleagues who come back for various reasons. To retrieve important documents, to run critical experiments, to check on the integrity of the office, to comfort the students, to provide medical help, …
When can we have our campus back? I understand protesters consider this siege a necessary evil in the fight for freedom and justice. But education is also necessary for both the short term and the longer term future of everyone. In the short term, students need their studies continued. In the longer run, the society is going to need the universities to function when this is over - and this fight is going to be over one way or another, sooner or later. Damaging and killing the universities is not going to do anyone any good.
