Lies are going to be all over the place in Hong Kong|Chung Kim-wah
There is nothing special about a filmmaker presented with the Golden Globe Award for Best Director – Drama. The fact she is of Chinese origin, however, prompted all the Chinese national chauvinists to trumpet it to be “Chinese pride”. But when netizens found out that the director said she is American, and years ago she said “China is a place where there are lies everywhere”, the “Chinese pride” suddenly became “a person intending to insult China”. Even her award-winning work scheduled to be shown went by the board.
Stories like this are not news actually. The question is when such anti-intellectualism ends. A century ago, Lu Xun(1881 –1936, a leading figure of modern Chinese literature) lamented with sighs that Chinese people were only worthy of being onlookers with a poker face. A hundred years on, if he was still alive, he would be astonished at the fact that those onlookers have become hysterically high. Nowadays, they do not just absurdly stand by, but are the hatchet men who root for and help the people in power to create absurdity!
Today, lies are taken as truths in Hong Kong. It is now the usual practice to gloss over outdated lies with up-to-date ones. And those high-ranking officials and so-called patriots are endeavoring to make all Hong Kongers nonchalant onlookers. In just as short as a week, Hong Kong people have witnessed how far reaching such lies can be.
Irrespective of which perspective one takes, participation in primary elections can’t be deemed a hazard to national security, can it? Had they won the original LegCo election scheduled for last year, could they really have vetoed the Budget? It is just superfluous to mention the various political platforms floated by them which were not really a consensus. If they were able to overrule the Budget, would it pose a threat to national security? Are all these not staggeringly absurd? Isn’t showing support for or raising objection against motions tabled by the government a standard procedure of a legislature?
When the 47 participants in the primary elections came up for trial, the accusation was found to be so absurd, and the standard court procedure became a farce. Being the prosecuting side, the government did not even get the evidence ready before brining someone to trial. What’s worse, the prosecutor put forward an request that the trial be adjourned for an absurdly long period of time. To put it bluntly, this is literally political crackdown! Such intent to rule Hong Kong by lies is prevailing in Hong Kong from the top down. In retrospect, it can be seen how such lies spread all over the place, and how consistent they were.
Grave regression – wiping off the entire constitutional development
The principle of gradual and orderly progress for forming the Legislative Council ultimately by universal suffrage mentioned in Article 68 of the Basic Law is the essence of “one country, two systems” and Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong. However, the direct elections for the next term of the LegCo and the Chief Executive will be watered down to a large extent. Such palpable regression is said to be “perfection”. The Beijing authorities changed the trilogy clearly written in the Basic Law into a quintet in the first place, then turned it into something else pursuant to nothing, and made a regression to wipe out the entire issue of constitutional development. What is ludicrous is that to negate the outdated lie they had made up in the past with a new lie, the so-called experts, academics and members of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference who had used to defend the quintet said the issues of constitutional development and electoral arrangement do not fall into the area of “Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong”.
Replacing Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong and high degree of autonomy with Beijing’s full control over the city is itself an act of revoking “one country, two systems”, but the regime is still keen on brandishing “one country, two systems” to cover up its reneging on its promises. Do those labelled “patriots” by the regime for empowerment still have to make a fool of themselves before Hong Kong people by making a U-turn in a scoundrelly manner on what they supported in the past? If they are to be the core team to rule Hong Kong in the future, is there still a point to uphold such a lie – “one country, two systems”?
Can turning Hong Kong into a place where there are lies everywhere really make Hong Kong people and members of the international community nonchalant onlookers? It seems that it is not necessary to dig out what that female film director of Chinese origin said a few years ago for denunciation against her, as lies are already dysfunctional! Having reread the Basic Law one more time, I saw these words between the lines: “Who are the ones intending to insult China”!
Click
here for Chinese version
(Chung Kim-wah, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute)
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/2yMMfQETo download the latest version,
Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play