June 4 vigil a sign of healthy forces at work
If anyone believed that this year would herald an end of history - when the anniversary of the 1989 student-led movement enters its 21st year - the sea of candle-bearers in Victoria Park last Thursday revealed the opposite. While the flames showed that people have not forgotten the past, they also marked a new start for the June 4 commemoration in the city.
For Hong Kong people who lived through the Tiananmen Square crackdown, there is a growing awareness of the vital importance not just for them, but also for their children and grandchildren, to remember June 4.
According to a poll conducted by the Chinese-language Ming Pao newspaper at the vigil, 46 per cent of respondents were attending for the first time. Most of those were likely to be young people, born after 1989.
For the post-1989 generation, this year's anniversary is the beginning of the process of understanding the history of June 4 and the major implications for the development of China and Hong Kong.
People's wish to remember Tiananmen - and have it included as part of the nation's history - will have a profound impact on a number of matters.
An immediate issue, already a pressing concern for the administration, is how to handle the June 4 subject in schools and in public. Given the meagre mentions of the movement in history textbooks, and the scarcity of copies of June 4-related books in public libraries, the government has been accused of avoiding the issue.
Following his quick apology over remarks made in the Legislative Council last month about representing the views of Hong Kong people on June 4, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen has kept his mouth shut on the subject. His cabinet, and the government's close ally, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, have followed suit.
There is no doubt that a spate of controversies, including the remarks by Mr Tsang and those by a University of Hong Kong student union leader, has raised concern about freedom of speech.
They have helped the media and society come to a mainstream view that public debate on the topic should be rational, calm and accommodating.
On the political front, the massive turnout will galvanise the political sentiments of the populace. Scenes of latecomers waiting to enter a packed Victoria Park on Thursday were reminiscent of the July 1 rally in 2003.
Although only a small number of participants (7 per cent in the Ming Pao poll) said they had turned up because of anger over Mr Tsang's June 4 remarks, the government will feel the heat of the rising political temperature. Feel-good sentiments and the passionate atmosphere will become the public's collective memory of this event, and a source of new impetus on July 1.
Beijing was understandably keen to dilute the Tiananmen 20th anniversary here. The cool treatment of June 4-related news by the pro-Beijing, pro-government press is just one example of this.
Faced with the challenge of promoting growth during a global downturn, Beijing has highlighted the importance of putting economic and livelihood issues above everything else.
With integration, not separation, the message for mainland-Hong Kong relations, the issue of June 4 is seen as a source of friction.
The persistence of Hongkongers on the matter is thus perceived as an attempt to impose Hong Kong values on the mainland, which is an affront to the central authorities.
The depth of feeling at this year's commemoration in Hong Kong may have caused some jitters among the authorities here and in Beijing. But they are merely the healthy dynamics inherent in the 'one country, two systems' policy that could facilitate positive developments both in Hong Kong and on the mainland.
Chris Yeung is the Post's editor-at-large.
