Daily Lessons from Life 01 July 2012 - Protests as Hong Kong marks 15 years under China

"Protests as Hong Kong marks 15 years under China - AFP Sunday, Jul 01, 2012

HONG KONG - Defiant protesters targeted China's President Hu Jintao in Hong Kong Sunday as the former British colony swore in a new leader and marked the 15th anniversary of its return to Chinese rule.

"I vow to defend the Hong Kong... Basic Law," said new Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, a millionaire property consultant seen as close to China's communist rulers, as he read out the oath before shaking hands with Hu.

Hu's visit and the inauguration came as discontent towards Beijing surges to a new post-handover high, and security has been stifling for the events, with hundreds of police and giant barricades deployed.

As the president began his speech to around 2,300 guests in a harbourfront convention hall, a protester repeatedly shouted "End one-party rule".

The man also referred to the crushing of democracy protests on Tiananmen Square in Beijing on June 4, 1989, and was rapidly surrounded and taken away as the audience drowned him out with extended applause for Hu's opening remarks.

The Chinese president said that Beijing's support for "one country, two systems" and the right of the people of Hong Kong to rule the territory was "unwavering".

Hong Kong does not yet choose its leader by universal suffrage, and Leung was elected as chief executive in March by a special committee stacked with pro-Beijing business elites.
Protesters have been demanding greater democracy and railing against Beijing's meddling in local affairs.

Ahead of the inauguration, a group of demonstrators burned Leung's portrait, shouting: "Battle the Communist Party! We will battle to the end!"

Elsewhere, marchers held aloft a mock red coffin emblazoned in Chinese: "The Liaison Office (Beijing's representative) governs Hong Kong.""

Mind old mind! It has been 15 years since the handover. Mr Deng Xiaoping's and Mrs Margaret Thatcher's 50-year of '1 Country 2 Systems' still have 35 years to do. Why are some Hongkongers so impatient?

Lessons for me are:

1. Hong Kong Special Administration Region (Hkg SAR) is really the OFFICIAL name of Hong Kong. It is PART of the People's Republic of China (PRC). I think this fact should NEVER be lost on the Hongkongers - whether born before or after 1997;

2. there was an agreement between the landlord and the tenant. The lease expired and everything belongs to the landlord. Period. This is another indisputable FACT!;

3. some of the protesting Hongkongers need to ask themselves, what do they want to call themselves? PRC Chinese or foreigner? They have no choice. There is no legal recourse to talk about this time. No British government, the tenant, to cling on to. You are either Hkg SAR and part of PRC or you are NOT! Be clear about this.

4. if you are patient and lucky, in 35 years, or slightly before that, PRC may become a social democratic nation like Singapore where political leaders are the 'servants' of the public and the voters decide who is in and who is out - hopefully on very reasonable, balance and 'with the big picture' in mind voting! Alas, it is unlikely in such a big country with some many people. It will be riddled with 'pork and barrel' politics of the sicked Western democracies UNLESS and UNTIL the people given the sacred vote know what they are doing - not for self-interest but for the greater good for a majority of the people even when one's self-interest may be impacted negatively! Unnatural and not like human behaviors? YES. But then should this NOT the ideal one must chase and realize?

Best of luck to the protestors...