Resist Hatred

Some masked and helmeted black-cladded people set a fire in the middle of the road.  Other masked and helmeted black-cladded throw stones and occasionally firebombs.  Suddenly, some more heavily armed (carrying big guns), masked and helmeted people pull down and drag an apparently unarmed masked person towards a police wagon.  Are these police making an arrest?  It makes one wonder about those similarly dressed people setting fires, throwing stones and fire bombs.  Are those protesters?  Or actually police or other provocateurs masquerading as protesters?  Of course, the police say the police, even when undercover, would not do anything that violates the law.  But who can tell?  Nowadays, many people have lost their trust of the government and the police.  Herein lies the cruz of the matter. 

My wife and I went to Bangkok for a break from Hong Kong.  Partly hoping to come back with a fresh perspective.  I am more convinced than ever that both the establishment and the protesters have to resist the urge to hate each other.   First of all, not all police are bad - we have to believe in that and there is some evidence that it is the case.  On the other hand, not all protesters are violent - this is obvious - the millions of people who come to peaceful marches outnumber the violent protesters by a huge ratio.

Most protesters are not violent.  Yet they feel they cannot abandon those violent ones because they are comrades with the same goal.  But are they?  Venom-filled violence will not win us freedom and democracy, assuming it is what all protesters want.  History has proven that the result is only more hatred and oppression.  Worse, hatred degrade and hurt the person who hate, who become more like the enemy.   Even if one seems to win with hatred and violence, ultimately one loses one’s humanity.   

As, as pointed out by many, who can tell who these masked, helmeted, black-cladded people really are?  Are we sure we want to be associated with them?  Assuming they are genuinely overly-excited protesters using an ill-fated strategy, isn’t it better to persuade them it is not a good strategy?  Rather than bringing everybody down a doomed path.  

The venom is also patently obvious from the facial expressions, body language, and explicit language used by the police and establishment: cockroaches, people with no stake in society, …   Is this the kind of attitude that we have to expect from people who enforce the law and run our government?    Given such hostility towards the people, how can the people expect the police to be impartial, and the government to truly serve the people, instead of lording over us? 

If the protesters truly want to win over the majority of the citizens, resist the hatred and the physical violence.  

If the establishment and the police truly want to win our respect, resist the hatred and the physical as well as institutional violence.  

Of course, it is not easy.  To respond to injustice with kindness is extremely hard.  It takes a very strong person  and superhuman strength to do that.  Just ask Jesus Christ.  But this is the only way out.  The only way to win, for everyone.  Just ask Jesus Christ.  

Bangkok diversion

My wife and I took a break in Bangkok, when my summer projects and her summer teaching were mostly done, and just before the new academic year starts again.  Bangkok is a popular getaway for many HongKongers.  For us, this is our first trip to Bangkok. 

Thai silk has a good name.  And Jim Thompson is a mystery.  So we went to his house to have a look.  The silk scarves, ties, shirts, skirts, …, look very nice.  But all I took was just a photograph of the cocoons of the silk worm - for free. 

We took a boat cruise to the royal palace, and walked around it.  On the way back, we stopped by Chinatown.  A sleepy place, perhaps the most sleepy Chinatown that I have ever visited.  

There are lots of cats out on the streets in Bangkok, and not many dogs.  I am not too sure why.  

I also stumbled upon several 3-feet long monitor lizards in Lumphini Park, while I was running.  They were swimming and sunning themselves on the grass, seemingly oblivious to us.  And most people did not seem to pay them much attention.  Amazing. 

We took a long ride on the Skytrain to Samut Prakan, where the Chao Phraya River flows into Gulf of Thailand.  

We are here to check out the local seafood market.  There are a lot of similarities with the Chinese, but also some surprises.  More about that in a later post. 

We had to check out the “4-faced Buddha 四面佛” that is so popular with the Chinese.  We were surprised to find that this is not actually a buddha, but Brahma, a god in the Hindu pantheon.  

In fact, there are 7 more shrines dedicated to Hindu gods in the area.  

Come to think of it, it is not too surprising - given that Buddhism is an offshoot of Hinduism from India.  

Vitality and creativity

Putting aside the right-ness (or wrong-ness) of the protest movement in the past two months for the moment, there is a strong sense of vitality and creativity that is quite refreshing.  

It can be seen from the huge numbers of people who come out to march, again and again.

It can be seen from the wide range of activities organised, in terms of geographical spread (essentially all over Hong Kong instead of just the north of the island), types of activities (marches, prayer meetings, Lenon Walls, withdrawing money, strikes, …), 

sectors involved (teachers, lawyers, health workers, public servants, …), …., 

much of which have never happened before. 

It is also evident from the vast quantity and quality of the promotional materials that has been generated.  There is so much colour, shapes, humour, forms, wit, use of words, expressions, …  

It can be seen by the fluidity of the movement, by their ability to self-reflect and adjust the tactics, 

to apologise and change, …  

In contrast, the establishment seems to have only one mode: condemnation, denial, and stonewalling - all negative and suffocating.  Their gatherings seem so static.  Their slogans and posters seem so formulaic.  Except for one recent newspaper campaign making use of an old saying referencing the cruelty of repeated pickings of the squash plant - which stimulated much speculation. 

In terms of creativity and vitality, there is no question who holds better hope for the future.  

Cats

My collection of cats found on the Tsim She Tsui waterfront.

A cat looking at you.

A cat in profile looking at you. 

A cat with 2 heads.

A couple of cats.

A cat without a body.  aka Cheshire. 

A cat without a head.

Smile if you like my cats.

Give Our Young People Credit

No one should be throwing stones at the police, or the police quarters. No one should be breaking windows, setting things on fire and defacing the national flag and insignia.  It is wrong to prevent travellers from taking the airplane.  The young “forceful” protesters made many mistakes while protesting against the wrong doings of the government.

On the other hand, many people argue that the young protesters are being directed and manipulated by foreign countries, pointing to how well organised, and how well equipped they are.  They seem to think these are children who cannot think for themselves.  

The reality is that the equipment of the protesters are nowhere near the level of the robotcop-like gear of the police.  And there is plenty of evidence that much of the protesters’ gear were purchased by themselves or donated by well-learning local people, many of them adults.  

There is also no apparent systematic hierarchy among the protesters. They often argue among themselves what to do: to block or not to block the travellers,  where to strike, to break windows or not to break windows, …, etc.  Yet they have learned to develop fluid strategies just like the way that Lao Tsz described water in Dao De Jing.  In the beginning they confronted the police at announced specific sites, with many casualties and many arrested.  They then developed a strategy to strike and withdraw swiftly, disrupting while reducing casualties and arrests.  

Many of them seem to realise that their problem is with the government, hence they  should target the government, but should avoid hurting the citizens and travellers.  It is far from a consensus. But there is evidence that the majority believe in it.  The challenge is to convince the minority to also adopt the moral high ground, instead of stooping to the violent tactics of their opponents. 

What is most admirable is that they can reflect on their actions, and have the courage to admit their mistakes.  Some have openly apologised for the disruption upon the travellers.  I hope they can build on this valuable capacity of self-improvement.  

These young people are idealistic, impulsive and made many mistakes. However, their ability to learn and be self-critical, the courage to admit mistakes, and the faith in justice  and democracy are not qualities that we can used to describe our government, and many in the establishment.  

Moral Authority

Many people - from the establishment, neutral and even protester sides - have commented that many, if not most, of the police are reasonable people.  Not at all the brutes that often appear opposite the protesters and even by-standers, beating up people, planting incriminating evidence, instigating criminal acts, arresting indiscriminately, colluding with the triads.  

What many people forget is that the same person can behave differently in different situations.  When they are calm and not stressed, most people, including the police, behave reasonably.  But when they are on the street, sweating under heavy gear, hungry, facing flying bricks, irritated by laser, seeing colleagues hurt, it is very easy to vent the frustration and anger on the people in front of them.  The same happens on the protesters’ side.  And the vicious cycle continues.   

And now the cycle has slipped down an ominous slope.  Some police and establishment have started openly calling the protesters cockroaches - an attempt to de-humanize the people that they dislike.  It was what Nazis call the Jews in Germany, and also what the Hutus called the Tutsis in Rwanda, a crucial step towards the evil that is genocide.  The implication of the name-calling is that their enemies are not humans, hence do not have to be treated as such.  It is an extremely treacherous road indeed. 

What can be done to stop this from escalating (degrading) further?  The original instigators of this mess was, of course, the government, who proposed the Extradition Bill and continues to try to stonewall their way out of it, which is deepening the crisis instead.  However, this is a bunch of people without much imagination, lateral thinking or sense of morality.  Expecting them to have the imagination and courage to take the moral high ground is perhaps not realistic.  

On the other hand, the protesters have demonstrated fluidity, respect for the regular citizens, and a strong sense of justice.  If they can stop to think a bit, they may come to the realisation that violence cannot help them achieve their aims of justice, democracy and peace.  If they can refrain from violence, they can concentrate on building up their moral authority by insisting on doing the right thing.   They have already demonstrated that they can disrupt the government, traffic, and so much more almost at will.  They don’t need to continue to do that every day.  They don’t even have to stop completely.  

Instead, they can build up more moral authority by refraining from violence from now on, and concentrate on, e.g., contesting the coming elections, at the district level as well as the city-wide legislative council level.  They have successfully mobilises a large segment of the citizenship, to care about their own community, about justice.  

They will have to deal with the gloating of the establishment, which will certainly claim that they have defeated the protesters.  It takes a lot of self-belief and self-control to not stoop to the lower level of your opponents.  It is precisely because it is hard, that it is valuable.  It is worth considering.  

Where is the Christian Establishment?

In these days of conflict and confrontation, Christians are split many ways.  Some Christians are hoping that Christian leaders can speak with one voice to calm things down, to persuade all sides to refrain from violence, to help return society to a state of “normality”.  Sadly, it is not happening, and there appears to be little hope of it happening. 

There are many Christians working hard to mediate between the police and the protesters, to minister to the young people on the streets.  Based on what I can see, they are mostly from the liberal and smaller churches and denominations.  Some are working hard.  As insignificant as I am, I am personally doing what I can in my own circle.  However, our influence, humanly speaking, is limited.  

Many high profile pastors of big churches and “mega” churches, sadly, have already long been co-opted by the establishment.  They are very fond of citing the very few Bible verses such as Romans 13:1 - “Let everyone be subject to governing authorities …”  They are also very fond of dropping names of rich and powerful people, senior government officials.   They conveniently ignore verses such as Romans 13:4 - “They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.”  What if the governing authority is not bringing punishment on the wrongdoer, are they then il-legitimate?  Shall we continue to subject to them?  Should we at least point out where they did wrong?

Even when such Christian establishment leaders preach against violence.  They point to the unfair criticisms of police officers, the violence committed by protesters against the police, the conflicts “created” by the protests against the government.  They cannot bring themselves to criticise the institutional injustice and violence committed by the government, the flagrant brutality committed by the police, the apparent collusion between the police and the triads.  

Hence when many in the Christian establishment preach against “taking justice in our hands”, and try to persuade the protesters to leave the exercise of justice to God, it rings so completely hollow and hypocritical. 

They have conveniently ignored the many Old Testament prophets who railed against the rich and powerful kings and priests who exploited the poor, the weak, the widows and orphans and otherwise committed injustice.   They have also conveniently ignored Jesus Christ’s own severe criticisms of the Pharisees, the priests - the then establishment. 

Come to think of it, the term “Christian establishment” is almost an oxymoron.  When Christians become rich and powerful, they are corrupted by the power, and are no longer truly, purely Christians.   Jesus Christ himself said that where our treasure is, there our heart will be also.  If we consider power and status our treasure, our heart is no longer in God - will we then remain Christians?  

This is, sadly, why the Christian establishment has no leverage on the protesters.  Do they have leverage on the establishment?  The answer to that is also no.  They are of value to the rich and powerful only when they provide service of use to the rich and powerful.  Their status as part of establishment is illusory.  

The reality is that they have leverage over nobody beyond their immediate followers.