Since the June Fourth Incident happened in 1989, Hong Kong citizens have been mourning the dead with candlelight in their multitudes at Victoria Park on the night of its every anniversary. Such a practice, regarded by some as “ritualized”, has had its own share of controversy, and there have been ups and downs in the number of participants in the vigil. But such insistence by Hong Kongers has given indelible meanings to the cause of the pursuit of justice and truth. Every year, the candlelight at Victoria Park is the focus of the world. For many people, to keep the candlelight on is to keep expressing the wish for rehabilitation of the June Fourth Incident. This year, the SAR government has employed some very despicable means to make it difficult for the candlelight at Victoria Park to continue. But can such actions really strangle a wish that has lasted for more than 30 years?

It did not come as a surprise that the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China did not receive a notice of no objection to organizing the vigil. Then, on the morning of June 4, Chow Hang-tung, vice chairman of the Alliance, was arrested by the police for promoting an assembly that had been banned. But in fact, she did not mention the vigil on June 4, nor did she call on anyone to attend the vigil with her. Which laws did she break by saying that she would go to Victoria Park, light a candle, and be dressed in black? Does she need to apply for a notice of no objection to doing such things? At noon that day, police officers completely cordoned off the six football fields and grass fields of Victoria Park. People sitting outside the fields, reading newspapers or taking a rest were also harassed, their personal freedoms seriously violated. Later, the police brought traffic at several cross-sea tunnels to a halt. By hook or by crook, the government was trying to prevent some people from going to Victoria Park, even at the expense of the normal lives of all Hong Kong citizens.

All this has shown the extent to which the government has damaged our civilized standards, administrative rules and the boundaries between public power and individual freedom. All these things are the products of so many years of Hong Kong’s social development. Even the solemn legal provisions have become full of uncertainty and even arbitrariness under the government’s manipulation.

On the night of June 4, around Wan Chai and Causeway Bay, there were still many people who expressed their grief over the June Fourth Incident in their own ways. These courageous individuals faced threats and acts of suppression from the government squarely. Police officers in these locations prowled the streets and intimidated citizens with force, using a warning tone from time to time to ask citizens to leave as soon as possible. Most of these police officers violated the social gathering ban themselves. When they arbitrarily accosted people like “Grandma Wong” (Alexandra Wong) or one or two young people to conduct stop and search, harass them or even intimidate them, they were enforcing neither the law nor any anti-pandemic measures.

At the scene, I heard for myself a police officer leading a team shout to bystanders on the pavement, “You might have violated the National Security Law by being at Causeway Bay tonight!” He then said to the police officers in his team, “Guys, get your 599G ticket book ready now.” What kind of law enforcement was that? What the policeman said shows that the police do not know which law to enforce at all. Perhaps this does not matter anymore, and this shows that the government’s mention of the rule of law and its appeal to citizens to obey the law could not be more hypocritical and deceptive. By bundling anti-pandemic measures with the national security law and using them arbitrarily, the government is in essence using the so-called “law” as a tool of political suppression. Isn’t it clear enough what the so-called “anti-pandemic measures” and the casually mentioned “National Security Law” on the night of June 4 were about?

Hong Kong people have kept the candlelight on for more than 30 years. Certainly, it will not go out. A 30-year tradition that has been handed down from generation to generation, the candlelight, even if it cannot be lit at Victoria Park, will make its way into every neighborhood, the homes of thousands and millions of people, and the hearts of most Hong Kong people who aspire to truth and justice. No number of police – not even ten times or a hundred times the 7000 police officers deployed by the government on the night of June 4 this year – can extinguish the candlelight. When the government uses intimidation and tyrannical power to prevent candles from being lit in Victoria Park, the candlelight will be in the hearts of people, in the community, at the US Consulate General in Hong Kong, and at the European Union Office to Hong Kong. And candles will be lit all around the world in continuation of the candlelight at Victoria Park. When that happens, all threats of a 7,000-strong police presence, the strict enforcement of the law, anti-pandemic measures, the condemnation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the National Security Law will be nothing but paper tigers. A cause the Hong Kong people have persisted in for more than 30 years has not become history simply because a candlelight vigil could not be held at Victoria Park this year. On the contrary, the absence will only illuminate that part of history even more vividly to the world. The candlelight will go on, and it will shine only brighter.

(Chung Kim-wah, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute)

This article is translated from Chinese by Apple Daily.

Click here for Chinese version

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