When I posted some nice pics of HK (courtesy of public domain) to let others a chance to remember the not-too-long-ago HK at peace, my friend made this comment: “Hardware (the buildings) can be beautiful but without great software (the people), the system is not much to be proud of.” I absolutely disagree but respect his view, so here’s my thought to his statement: Part 1: I think the software (people and the policy) of HK is nothing to be ashamed of and in fact should be proud of for HK. I wish people would be more objective and less biased especially if you are to deliver a message to public through mass media because in that sense youll become a voice to other people especially those not living or have not lived in HK before, so your voice to those people should be fair and unbiased. If HK software is “not much to be proud of” as my friend said, all these criticisms (criticisms not necessarily drawn from this movement) and against HK government and against CY Leung (Chief Executive) would have been banned from day 1 and those making them would be persecuted. People make picture of CY as a devil, photoshop him inside a coffin, display him in a funeral home as if the funeral service was organized for him…If HK had no freedoms and if HK not in some form of democracy one way or another, will you think HK government would allow anti-government publications to happen and continue, to be shared, displayed, and publicized freely without any followed up actions against these individuals they find responsible? If serious enough, the creators or writers of these anti-government would be jailed or even terminated if this happened in other non-democratic nations. But NO, this is not the case in HK. In HK, CY (or any other chief executive, government bodies or government officials in that sense) did not and CAN NOT arrest those people who make fun of him or of the government because the Basic Law wont allow this to happen. I don’t worry about saying and expressing my views in any way for or against the government or any political bodies because I know my rights are fully protected under HK Basic Law to do so freely. Even there is limit to what you can say against the Presidents of any full-democratic nations under freedom of speech. Do not get me wrong and misinterpret or misrepresent my rational behind this as not supporting freedom of speech. As explained shortly below, I fully support the idea of democracy but even in a well-established democratic nation like US and Canada for that matter has a limit to the freedoms being protected by the Constitutions of their own federal law. Law and legal system is the basis of the democratic frameworks, without it, even if you have a perfect 1-citizen-1-vote voting system (if existed at all), it does not and would not mean anything. By the way, I am not a supporter of CY Leung and I am not really a very political person. However, I want to give my voice to the fairness of HK, and so to speak to give HK back the good name that it once had. (HK is not perfect just like any other developed democratic nations – you may believe and see it this way that CY Leung may not be good for HK, HK not a full-democracy yet, HK Police could have handled this better, everyone should be rich and famous, but HK as a whole is not what people are judging now and sounding HK like a hell-hole. You are entitled to your views which I respect, but this is my view) Is HK the best in the world to live in? It depends on you. Right now, NO because some PEOPLE are making HK lawless and if the same group of PEOPLE rule HK even under their definition of being in a full-democracy, I would say NO also. Aside from that hypothesis just now, I would say HK is not the best to live in to certain extent due to over-crowdedness, bad air pollution, very high cost of living, cramped spaces, non-stop road constructions, lots of noise-pollution, traffic issues, etc., but this has nothing to do with the issue being addressed in the movement. I can see a lot of areas in HK that can and should improve and may not always provide the people with the highest standards and quality of environment to live in but this is why the people and how the people of HK in the past and in the future to work together in harmony to make it a better HK. But overall, especially in terms of freedoms, legal rights, civil rights and other human rights that are predominately being respected and guaranteed by laws in other developed democratic nations, HK has always allowed and guaranteed them all in HK by the Basic Law! In that aspect, HK is one of the best cities to live in and to be proud of. People ought to be lucky and fortune to be living in HK rather than other so-called democratic nations without constitutional guarantee of such democratic freedoms and rights. To me, exchange of information and views are always welcome as I was born in HK and was raised in US, so I’ve been raised to believe in, strongly support and respect the right of freely expressing your opinions and views even with indifference. What I find it disgraceful and irresponsible is that I just cannot agree with people who provide misleading or misinformed or partially valid information that only provide partial or one side of the story with biased views. Below (in Part 2) is some of the good “software” that makes HK great not based on any statistical data but on experience as a resident because statistics can be skewed, but experience is real and it’s what really happened…(I have lived many years in both US, HK and a dual citizen of both places. I genuinely and sincerely love both countries and call both my home. I have also traveled to many other countries, be it developing or developed, in Asia, North America, and Europe to have the opportunity to see first-hand how living conditions of other countries are like and with those experiences, you truly appreciate the privileges of freedoms and human rights your own government HK is giving you when others less fortunate can only envy, privileges that many HKongers don’t even realize that they are enjoying and living it everyday while many others in lesser fortunate nations don’t even know such freedoms and rights exist). To be continued
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 03:09:18 +0000
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