Miriam Lau is a Liberal Party legislator and was an undergraduate in the University of Hong Kong's Department of English in 1967. She and other students called for social and political change.
IT WAS really a long time ago. I remember that the university's students were not that politicised in those days. We were frightened more than anything - there was a real sense of fear, what with all the riots, curfews and bombs going off. That fear went right across Hong Kong.
I don't think anyone at the university really thought there was going to be any sort of massive social change or anything. I don't think I ever felt the British administration would topple. I don't think anyone thought that. There was, of course, a genuine concern for Hong Kong's internal security. We were concerned about what was happening around us in society. I think it was the start of some kind of student awareness. During that time, students became more aware, more willing to speak up, more willing to ask questions about our rights. We began to feel students should be more vocal and not cut themselves off from society. It was that kind of sentiment that was behind us. We didn't have one student leader going up and making big speeches. It was nothing like what happened with the sculpture at HKU. There were no leaders of that nature or speeches of that kind. But it was in a way embryonic, the start of something that could be described as a student movement.
I think we spoke up on the radio because we were identifying certain issues which I thought were on people's minds. [Lau and three other students called for more senior government posts for locals, free education, better pay for local teachers, youth vocational training and more facilities at resettlement areas to try and keep youths off the streets].
All the events of that summer, not just the violence, showed that people were unhappy about the existing government and social system. Sentiments like that were not built up overnight. Even if a group of activists was involved, support for them did not come automatically. It had to be something in the minds of people already, somethingthat manifested itself in action. But, that said, I don't rule out that there were other influences.
The summer of '67 probably shook up the Government and made them listen more to the people. It led to more open government. All the improvements we saw in the '80s can be related back to that time. Of course, you could say that the Government became more open because of '97, but it could equally be traced back to the events of '67.
From a legislator's point of view, that time shows how important good security is. The incidents of '67 were, I think, very detrimental to Hong Kong and it took us a number of years to shed that image. It was a major disruption to Hong Kong which we don't want repeated at any time.