All societies are free to a degree. The variants reflect cultural differences constrained by economics, political and religious ideologies, moral systems, internal stability and national security. The history of human civilisation informs us of the ebb and flow of human freedom, universal to all nations and peoples.
On the personal level, freedom seems simple enough. Crude, inconsiderate, invasive exercise of freedom betrays coarseness, intolerance and aggressiveness. The law protects individuals from both physical violence and verbal malice in the home and in public spaces. Mass-communication media occupy an extensive public domain, which explains why the legal profession, government, human rights groups, and above all, society are concerned that the media conduct itself appropriately.
Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa is probably the most vilified individual in Hong Kong. The relentless persecution year after year by the media, politicians and public officers is a social phenomenon unflattering to an international metropolis. Every opportunity is seized to ridicule him and his professional competence. Mr Tung's amazing tolerance is evidenced by the fact that, while having the authority to refer matters to the Broadcasting Authority, he has never exercised this privilege. His staunch belief in freedom of speech is unshaken by the excessive abuse of it, even where his personal and professional reputation has been subject to a smear campaign.
Such fortitude requires extraordinary strength of personality, although this resilience is commonly mistaken for weakness. Moral stamina cannot be sustained without convictions. Mr Tung's family upbringing, his decades of education and life experiences in Britain and America have given him a classical liberal-democratic open-mindedness, an egalitarian streak and a tolerance not easily apparent under his gentlemanly disposition - and far from being understood by insular or trivial people.
In a city proud of its international attributes, there is a sub-culture that resents and rejects its citizens of the world, of whom Mr Tung is certainly one. His overseas education places him outside the wide circle of the locally educated, where most of our civil servants, journalists, lawyers, medical professionals, teachers and university faculties belong. His self-restraint in the exercise of his executive privilege contrasts with the wantonness of some in public and political conduct.
Differences of perception and political disagreements are healthy phenomenons in a free and diverse society. Inexorable personal vendetta is not.
