Opinion | Do organisers of June 4 vigil hear the people?
Albert Cheng says to remain relevant, the organisers must heed the aspirations of the younger participants to uphold our core values
The annual candlelight vigil at Victoria Park to commemorate the June 4 massacre is around the corner. Whenever we get to this time of year, the pro-establishment camp will always come out to discredit the commemorative activity, saying history will be the judge.
They will also try to divert attention from this traumatic piece of history by stressing that China needs to continue its economic development and hence we must all set our sights on the future instead of harking back to the past. This is all meant to discourage people from attending an event that makes the central government immensely uncomfortable.
Youngsters taking part are not motivated by a desire to carry on the flame of remembrance
Things are different this year. Those who have come out in force to discourage people from participating in June 4 events are some home-grown voices. A prominent one is pro-autonomy activist Dr Horace Chin Wan-kan, who has published a book advocating "city-state" status for Hong Kong.
These newly emerged local forces have criticised the new slogan set by the organisers of the annual event, "Love the country, Love the people, That's the Hong Kong spirit", saying it amounted to a betrayal of the people. Critics said the organisers, the Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, is trying to replace local ideologies with patriotism, which implies it is trying to embrace Chinese communism.
The alliance's response - that loving the country does not equate to loving the ruling party - was rather weak and unimpressive. It obviously wants to take back control to show that patriotism is not something that can be monopolised by the pro-Beijing camp.
Unfortunately, the senior echelons of the alliance seem to have avoided tackling the difference between patriotism and nativism. They have also neglected the fact that participants of this year's June 4 activities will be motivated by an array of reasons and do not necessarily agree with the alliance's slogan, or even with the alliance itself.
Younger people take part in the commemorative activities because they want to defend our core values. We can also say they are motivated by a kind of nativism as a way to reject Chinese communism.