What do we expect from Hong Kong?

For a lot of people, this is a very depressing time in Hong Kong.  The substantial freedom that we enjoyed is being eaten away literally everyday. It seems the worse is yet to come.  They see little hope for the near future.  The prospect for the longer future is, if anything, worse.  

Looking around the world, many countries are becoming more autocratic.  Some democratically-elected leaders are acting more like despots.  Theoretically at least, the citizens of some countries can remove those wannabe despots with their votes, in time.  But we do not have that luxury in Hong Kong.  Will we acquire that right to vote in the future?  it is difficult to see that happening at this point. 

However, if we study the history of those countries that have the vote now, we see that they did not always have the vote. Decades, maybe centuries ago, they were like where we are now in Hong Kong.  In fact, they could be in worse situations earlier.  It was through decades, even centuries of hard work and good fortune that they arrive at what they are today.  If we ask a person who lived in those countries back then, they probably could not see much hope.  Yet they persevered.  Had everyone given up then, there would have been no today - for them. 

It is human nature to want to see the world change for the better - for us, right now.  We want to believe we are special, in that we can witness historical moments such as a great popular movement ushering in freedom for us.  Unfortunately, history can takes a long time to happen.  Changes are often slow.  So slow that we do not see it happen when it is happening.  We are aware of the changes only looking back. 

On the other hand, a democracy can only regress into despotism, if the people are not vigilant or not willing to put in the hard work to control the leviathan that is the government machine. 

So, what is the lesson for us?  If everyone gives up striving for freedom now, there will be no future, and no freedom.  If we keep working hard, there is a chance, perhaps very small, that years, decades, perhaps even centuries down the road, there will be a more open Hong Kong.  We may not live to see it happen.  But someone will.  Is this Ah Q speaking?  Perhaps.  But giving up is worse, truly unimaginable.  

For those in despair, I recommend “The Power of the Powerless.”  It was written by Vaclav Havel in 1978, inside the then Czechoslovakia when it was still behind the Iron Curtain, long before liberation in 1989.  It is essentially a manifesto of dissent.  It analyses the nature of the communist regime at the time, and discuss possible actions by individuals to resist a totalitarian system, to refuse to let the lie oppress us, to live in truth.