The overseas news reports keep trying to explain why so many Hong Kong people are so dispirited and angry, and they keep only scratching the surface. Start with this: that the parents or grandparents of almost every Hongkonger came here to escape the politics and chaos and lawlessness of mainland China. Today, they look at a local government made up almost entirely of people chosen for their loyalty to the PRC, irrespective of their ability or their personal ethics. Almost every government minister has profound communist sympathies or former DAB or leftist connections. Some are not so hidden Communists. That is the only reason they are there. It feels to many Hong Kong people that they are trapped, ruled by these people. No one voted for them. When the public DID vote a prominent leftist out of Legco, the Chief Executive just appointed him to the Executive Council. Screw your democracy. That would not seem so bad if the Legislative Council could impose any restraints on the government. But too few observers understand or care that the Legislative Council is half made up of functional constituencies who are either kowtowing to Beijing or to big business. There is a split voting system where legislation must be passed both by geographically elected legislators and these special interest legislators, who are basically lobbyists. The public did not vote for them, but they can veto ANY legislation aimed at controlling the government or supporting grassroot interests. That is why, for many democrats, Legco becomes solely a space for political theatre. Because democrats and pro-grassroots legislators can achieve nothing there. NO WORTHWHILE LEGISLATION THE GOVERNMENT DOES NOT LIKE CAN BE PASSED. EVER. It feels to many Hong Kong people that they are trapped, ruled by this system. More and more young people feel they cant have children. Many cannot even afford to get married. Rents sky rocket. Homes of their own are too expensive. Prices are being driven up by property developers and mainland investors. The government and the CE hate the idea of rent control or seriously changing this. If you send your kids to public school, the government wants to feed them a propagandist version of history. The compulsory application of this is blocked for now, but some schools are doing it anyway. If you want to send them to a good private school, forget it. You probably cant afford it. It feels to many Hong Kong people that they and their next generation are trapped, ruled by these circumstances. Rent seekers are destroying innovation and local business. Young innovators cant survive. Any successful business has its rents pushed up until the owner is working for the landlord. Hong Kong home grown business is dying. The media could help. But look at the people given pride of place when the tycoons went to Beijing. And you know that the media are not inclined to help. Hong Kong has about one and a half papers that do not toe the line. Its commercial TV stations are both pandering to political interests. Self censorship is rife. Local broadcast media are turning away from international English-language programming, which lowers HKs profile worldwide. It feels to many Hong Kong people that they are finding no help there, so they turn to social media instead. But they feel the forums for debate are shrinking. And then theres the influx of mainlanders. This is nothing against the mainlanders themselves, but Hongkongers do feel they are being used as a deliberate part of assimilation: to mainlandise their home and remove it of its identity. So, international press, look deeper. This is NOT just a petty argument about public nomination for the Chief Executive. Its about having room to breathe. It is about a sense of complete despair, of seeing no direction open. Hongkongers are not stupid. I to not believe they would choose a Chief Executive that the PRC has the ability to reject anyway. They just want to breathe and not feel they are being boxed into an ever tighter and tighter corner where someone is about to turn the lights out for good. This is no rebellion. Its desperation.
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 06:36:33 +0000
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