If Hong Kong is to find a peaceful path to 2047, reform and reconciliation must begin now

At the heart of the mass protests is a defence of Hong Kong’s freedoms under ‘one country, two systems’, which expires in 2047. The critical issue is to agree on how Hong Kong can evolve towards that date – or risk extreme views tearing the city apart

Andrew Sheng

Published: 7:00am, 30 Jun 2019

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Recent events in Hong Kong have made us all reflect on what gave rise to the mass protests and what to do next. This is not a blame game, but we must understand the past to appreciate the present, and move forward.

I may be wrong, but at the heart of the protests is a defence of Hong Kong’s freedoms under “one country, two systems”, adopted as a 50-year transition period to enable Hong Kong to return to Chinese sovereignty.

Having worked under three former British colonies — North Borneo, Malaya and then Hong Kong — I have some understanding of how the colonial system operated. Before 1997, every evening, the colonial government in Hong Kong would send a telegram to London to report and seek guidance.

There was no need after July 1997. Unplugged from its mainframe, and under “one country, two systems”, the Hong Kong server was plugged to itself — without fully appreciating the burdens of self-autonomy. Successive chief executives protected Hongkongers’ right to protest but failed to resolve the fundamental economic right to home ownership, and the social inequalities.

With Beijing’s tightening grip, no wonder Hongkongers are so angry

While Hongkongers spent more time on politics, across the border, Shenzhen became a larger economy, more international and prosperous, and more open to ideas and innovation. Shenzhen out-Hong-Konged Hong Kong in embracing entrepreneurship.

Hong Kong citizens enjoy the greatest of freedoms, with the exception of “one person, one vote”, on which there is fundamental disagreement. The inconvenient question is, will allowing every person a vote solve all of Hong Kong’s ills? No; not only that, it would affect the political and institutional arrangements on the mainland, involving one-fifth of mankind.

British philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote: “People do not always remember that politics, economics, and social organisation generally, belong in the realm of means, not ends.” He added: “A good society is a means to a good life for those who compose it, not something having a separate kind of excellence on its own account.”

We do not live in isolation. Individual freedoms have social consequences. Those who enjoy freedoms and benefits must have a little patience in waiting for the rest to advance.

People power or mob rule? Hong Kong protesters are blurring lines

What Hong Kong youth and their parents need to appreciate is that, in vilifying the police and the courts, they erode the very pillars of the rule of law. The experience in many former colonies is that when the police and the courts are asked to resolve political dilemmas, the nation or community ends up losing. The institutions of the rule of law cannot sort out political issues that cannot be written wholly in the law.

One reason the British constitution is unwritten is that the rule of law is built from acts of Parliament, court judgments and conventions that include unspoken and unwritten codes of conduct. The grey areas of law are usually resolved politically or administratively through due process. There are independent inquiries, and as long as everyone trusts the process, which allows time and expertise to resolve conflicts and achieve understanding, the system bends but does not break.

At the heart of the recent conflicts in Hong Kong is a tussle between an exercising of American-style absolute individual rights, and the community responsibilities of stewardship, which is more Asian or Chinese in thinking.

Today, the British system is being pushed to the limit by American-style legal interpretations, which enables banking behaviour that is legal but not true to the spirit of the law. Individualism and self-interest have produced politicians such as Boris Johnson and Michael Gove, who care more about their egos than the community. British sovereignty is being threatened by separatist views, as Scotland and Northern Ireland seek different economic and sovereign interests from England.

In other words, if you push views to the extreme, the nation risks fragmenting into unmanageable and possibly uneconomic communities. Consequently, if you see everything in black and white and believe that individual freedom is absolute, then you leave very little room for compromise. Zero-sum resolution can be tragic, as history has shown, and often violent. This is an outcome that no one wants.

Hong Kong’s world won’t stop in 2047, so we’d better start building bridges

Hongkongers have always been pragmatic and practical, even as history has introduced an admirable dose of idealism. Now is the time to test Hong Kong’s common wisdom to its limits. Can the community come together or will it tear itself to bits? Can Hong Kong evolve a social contract on how to move towards 2047?

This is the time for all good people to begin talking and listening, and not talking across each other. If the youth of Hong Kong can only listen in their own digital echo chamber, then there is little hope of reconciliation. All crises are events, but reforming and reconciliation is a process. This process must begin now.

Andrew Sheng has lived and worked in Hong Kong and has always admired Hong Kong’s resilience in adversity

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