If I remember correctly, this column has been here for at least two years now. My initial thought was that there are too many limitations and taboos in the finance industry. Regardless of how powerful the regulatory agency is, I can criticize anything I find unreasonable in this column without hesitations.

I can breathe the air of freedom in this column and do not have to obey anyone.

The finance industry is facing an approaching storm but not yet in immediate danger. The Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) has been blasted for restricting the Companies Register’s checks arbitrarily. As a result, the banking industry got let off. You won’t get arrested if you criticize the Listing Division of the Hong Kong Exchanges (HKEx 388) for its insufficient supervision. The law has given us the freedom to tease the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) for its role as the accomplice of HKEx.

The finance industry was prosperous because the people living here had freedom – freedom of information, freedom of speech, and press freedom. But when someone took away your freedom, saying you have committed a crime of expressing your opinion freely, then said it is an individual case, and Hong Kong still has freedom. Do you understand the logic?

The government has recently raided the newsroom of Apple Daily, frozen its bank accounts, and cut off all its resources. Its ultimate goal is obvious. We just don’t know when this day will come.

It depresses me more seeing the journalists jailed than my column disappears. It is very difficult to show them that we understand and not just watch them suffer as outsiders.

The sky is turning dark, but yet some are still guarding here until the night falls.

But there will be an end to the darkness. We shall experience the ups and downs before reaching the light on the other side. Those who have been locked up today, persist, or chose to leave, please do not go gentle into that good night but should rage against the dying of the light.

“Do not go gentle into that good night,

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,

Because their words had forked no lightning they

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright

Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight

Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,

Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

May this poem encourage us all.

(CEO Ching, www.facebook.com/IFC89 )

This article is translated from Chinese by Apple Daily.

Click here for Chinese version

We invite you to join the conversation by submitting columns to our opinion section: [email protected]

Apple Daily reserves the right to refuse, abridge, alter or edit guest opinion columns for accuracy, length, clarity, and style, and the right to withdraw and withhold columns based on the discretion of our editorial page editors.

The opinions of the writers do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editorial board.

---------------------------------

Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE

To download the latest version,

iOS: bit.ly/AD_iOS

Android: bit.ly/AD_android

Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play