My Take | Letter from a Hong Kong prison misses the point on freedom
Jailed Occupy protest leader wrongly quotes George Orwell in a message broadcast to the world and then tells us we are the ones being deceived
One of the most talked-about events of the past week has been the online publication of “Letter from Prison” from jailed Occupy protest leader Alex Chow Yong-kang.
It has been circulated thousands of times and collected many more likes. Maybe we are witnessing the birth of a new contribution to the venerable prison literature of the past century.
“Without democracy,” Chow wrote, “any talk about the rule of law is a luxury.”
So I guess the appeal court that has jailed him for seven months is a kangaroo court, no?
He then cited author George Orwell: “In a world of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”
Hong Kong, he implies, has become such a place.