I am adding this part as a follow up to the post “Don’t Ridicule Our Demand for Democracy and Freedom By JS,” and “Legalization of drugs.”
One is a rant I posted by JS about people who very publicly show they condescending attitude towards Hong Kong people over the arena of our fight for a democratic Hong Kong. The other is my belief that the only way to win the “drug war” is to legalize narcotics.
And I admit that the later is difficult concept for many people to agree with. It’s against the conventional wisdom today in regards to the drug problem.
But I am still constantly angered, and in utter disbelief when our call for democracy is dismissed that way. Democracy is not new. It’s an established concept in many places in the world. It’s an ideal that was fought for many times before.
Thus I can understand if someone wants to put that down or ask me to be “ashamed,” (Editorial: Straight Times Singapore) or call me “disgraceful and ignorant” (Letters in SCMP), I could even accept the label of being “Mislead,” (China Daily, our own DAB party) in regards to the legalization of drugs but not when we are talking about democracy. Which is the actual context these words were used.
Democracy, self-determination, self-autonomy, universal suffrage, the right to vote, the right to free speech, the right not be harassed if you hold an opinion against the established power structure, is not actually that much of a challenge to put one’s mind around.
Yet, people who disagree seem to get a lot of print space through out the papers in Asia. I understand that over in this part of the world. The idea of democracy is still a challenge against established legal and governmental infrastructure.
But I don’t think we are that far behind the rest of the first world countries. Maybe I am wrong. Maybe many people are threatened by the idea Asians want to free elections, even if they are Asian themselves.
Maybe I spent too much time in my early 20s in America, spent a little too much of my childhood in New Zealand, where those things are not subjects to debate. They are the established legal and governmental structures. They are how you live. The subjects to debate are the policies one’s government implements, which party you are behind, or even how none of the representatives actually represent the average voter. And because it’s so natural to me, I cannot understand why it’s so difficult for others to accept.
And why it makes me furious every time I encounter those attitudes and amazed they get more “air time” in the papers than those who ask for a sharing of power with the public.
Maybe we just need more people who believe in those things to pull up the curve, to make sure there are more of us, who believe in human rights and freedom until we render those with the opposite attitude to being extremists rather than people in power in this part of the world. I know we have a minimum of half a million people who do believe we need to defend our freedom of speech and our right to gather in Hong Kong. I walked with every single one of them.
We just have a few million more to convince. That part shouldn’t be that hard. At some point most of the world was ruled by oligarchies. It isn’t anymore.
Hey, Happy Mun Yut (full month) Glutter Blog! Finally I wrote a piece that was fitting for the one month anniversary of both the Article 23 Protest and the beginning of my writing journey into Hong Kong. I tried all day.
Yan
5:43:16 AM comment [ 2]
Don’t Ridicule Our Demand for Democracy and Freedom By JS
Ranting: ‘What eats HK people?’
From What eats HK people? Commentary. The Straits Times. July 22, 2003.
The irony should shame Hong Kongers. The freedom-loving British gave them no democratic choices until the close of their 150-year rule, and Hong Kongers raised not a whisper. The freedom-crushing Chinese are steering the territory gradually towards universal suffrage, and Hong Kongers appear intent on tearing down a half-completed house. What really eats them?
I know I should not react to this sentiment, but I have seen it so many times, in so many reincarnations – I can’t help ranting.
Should people be shamed, if they are now working towards some higher goals that in the past they could not accomplish? There are scientists who embark on new project to find cures to cancer, AIDS etc. Would you go to them and say, ‘You have not work on this type of project before, and now you are working on it – You should be ashamed’ ?
I think a city, and even a civilization, is like a person – it does not spring full-grown and armored from the forehead of Zeus. We learn and grow. I don’t believe anyone should be shamed when they are fighting for Human Rights and Freedom. Rather, people who clutch on power and status quo should be ashamed.
Debates and discussions are great, and i think many of us won’t shy away from them, provided that the arguments are rational. I suppose if someone really like to bash Hong Kongers, there are tons of other stuffs for them to bash us on (we are very very far from perfect). But don’t ridicule our demand for democracy and freedom – Goodness knows Freedom is so limited in this world, and the path to it so precipitous already.
Repost from HKLoiterer: http://www.hkloiterer.net/blog/
Thank you JS. I feel exactly the same thing, about people who deride our hope for more say in our own governing. I can’t understand why there is a constant stream of detractors who ask us to be “ashamed,” call us “disgraceful” accuse us of “Ignorance” for wanting democracy. And get a lot of airtime in the papers in Asia. Democracy isn’t even a new, on the edge concept that’s hard to accept. It’s over 400 years old. People have died and fought for it throughout history. I can’t even begin to articulate how I feel because my anger gets the better of me. Hopefully one day I will be calm enough to say what I am feeling whenever I read something like that.
All I can think to say is: Why can’t these people, back up their belief, move somewhere with no freedom of speech then we will no longer have to listen to them? -Yan
Democracy in Asia
I have been thinking about what I wrote last night, and it really struck me how little say Asians have in regards to their governments in general. It’s one of those things that I have in the back of my mind, but since I am a person who exists where I exist regardless of geography, i never really realized I was surrounded by corrupt governments, benevolent dictators, questionably democracies, communist governments and China (Which is it’s own entity all by itself). It’s sort of a wake up call. Yeah, I suddenly understand where all those fools come from. I understand why our legco is full of people who don’t respect Hong Kong people, and our civil servants act all superior to the people they serve. Why the papers blast pro-democracy as extremists. Just a month ago I would NEVER come out and say I wanted democracy in public because I thought people who think I had fallen off the deep end. How quickly we forget. How quickly it became in my mind a norm. Mad.
3:51:43 PM comment [ 0]
Yan Sham-Shackleton Online 