It's time to reboot Hong Kong. Our entire system seems unstable, threatening to conk out at any time. Our politics have become Mickey Mouse. Our legislators have gone loony. They throw bananas, hurl obscenities and orchestrate walkouts. Our tycoons can't control their greed. Our government dare not control the excesses of property developers. Most families can't afford to buy homes. Our poor are getting poorer. Our rich are getting richer. Our banks won't open accounts for people due to their ethnic origin. Our young have become restless. Our leaders are unsure how to lead. We need to shut down and restart.
Well-known columnist Thomas Friedman marvelled some time back at Hong Kong's efficiency. He fell in love with our public transport system, our reliable mobile-phone service and our gleaming airport. He urged America to reboot to be more like us. Our trains are indeed punctual and we can build skyscrapers in no time. But such things are one-dimensional. They exhibit what's right without exposing what's wrong. Punctual trains are of little use to those who can only afford trams. And every rushed skyscraper adds yet another brick to the 'wall effect' that's already choking our airflow.
Our need to reboot becomes glaringly clear when we look beyond our outer efficiency to our inner deficiencies. The trains run on time but, at the stations, there are bent-over old women scavenging discarded newspapers for a living. The skyscrapers go up with lightning speed but the workers who clean the toilets or guard the entrances are paid slave wages.
Our inner deficiencies are lined with warning signs that, if we don't fix things now, they will become unfixable. But someone has to press the reboot button. This has either to be instigated at the top or it will be forced from the bottom. If our leaders don't do it now, the people will force it to happen sooner or later.
In free societies, change comes when the people are so driven to despair that they take matters into their own hands. Or change can come from astute leaders who detect a dangerous build-up of public despair.
US voters took matters into their own hands by sweeping Barack Obama and his Democratic Party into power when they despaired of Republican rule. A year later, they took matters into their own hands again by electing a Republican in the Democratic Party stronghold of Massachusetts to express dismay with Obama's performance. Obama detected the discontent and pressed the reset button.