It has become a ritual since 2003: happen what may, every year on July 1st Hong Kong people march in the streets from Victoria Park to Central to defend and assert the fundamental meaning of the “one country, two systems” formula.
Hong Kong just like Macao enjoys “a high degree of autonomy” as a Special Administrative Region and is therefore run by Hong Kong people. The “high degree of autonomy” principle is etched in stone in the Basic Law and the indigenous ruling is the motto oft repeated by top officials as a consequence of that autonomy. As the autonomy is not “full”, then the demo is all about “how high is high,” and thus demands echo both defensive worries and offensive claims, ranging from condemnation of blatant interference by Beijing to the appeal for full democracy, the latter being conceived as the best guarantee against the former.
The year 2003 clearly marks the end of “political apathy” for the population of Hong Kong, although one could argue that political activism had already embroiled the British colony in the 1920s because of massive labor disputes, later on in the 1960s because of the Cultural Revolution, and of course in May 1989 when more than 1.5 million participants took part in a march of sympathy for the young people demonstrating on Tiananmen Square — a similar rally gathered more than 100,000 people in Macao at the time.
The 1989 protesters in Hong Kong were not only sympathetic to the democratic cause fought in the Chinese capital city but of course equally apprehensive about their own future under the “one country, two systems” scheme. The hardening of the Chinese communist regime and the massive rallies held in Hong Kong led to a more democratic-oriented Basic Law (1990) and widened the opportunity for political reform as pushed by the last British Governor, Chris Patten, nominated in July 1992.
The July 1st march is definitely more strictly Hong Kong-focused though, and rightly so as it coincides purposely with the anniversary of the handover. Commemorations of the Tiananmen Square massacre are being held on June 4th every year in Victoria Park, and because of a particularly degraded human rights context on the motherland the candlelight vigil attracted this year some 180,000 quiet but resolute grievers. More specifically, the July 1st 2003 rally was originally triggered by the clumsy attempt to enact stricter state security laws as provisioned by article 23 of the Basic Law in a context in which the many lies of the Chinese authorities had been exposed regarding the SARS crisis, a pandemic that originated in Guangdong but hit the hardest in Hong Kong. The whole situation had furthermore been aggravated by the lack of political astuteness of both the Chief Executive of the time, Tung Chee Hwa, and his reviled security secretary, Regina Ip, thus allowing for clumsiness to become malevolence — and for the streets of Central to be crowded by 500,000 protesters!
In 2012, worries about the allegedly tainted new Chief Executive, C.Y Leung, brought to the streets some 100,000 to 400,000 people, depending which counting institution you trust (I intentionally disregard figures given by the police as they are always beyond being conservative). Tainted politically because of his suspected coziness with the Chinese Communist Party heightened by his “strong leadership” style. Tainted morally because of the “illegality” of some renovations made at his home(s) on the Peak that obliterate his vigorous attacks regarding similar wrongdoings made against his former opponent in the Chief Executive race.
Vigilance is thus about the nature of the matter, but you cannot claim bargaining power unless you have the big numbers.
Published in Macau Daily Times, Friday 6th July 2012
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