People Power

July 1, 2003 sure marked a page in the history of Hong Kong. Putting aside that it was the 6th anniversary of the handover from British sovereignty, since none of us seemed to have cared, this was the day when the second largest protest march was held on the streets of Hong Kong. I am honored and somewhat proud to be have been a part of it, though full of regret and shame to not have followed through with the entire march.

The rally originated as a protest to the Hong Kong government's injudicious determination to propose legislation on Article 23 of the Basic Law despite all the controversy it has risen throughout the SAR and worldwide. Over 500,000 people participated in the protest: each of them there for a different combination of various reasons, all of them discontent with the government.

I can't say I have paid enough attention to political conditions to regard certain government officials as losers. But I have witnessed and been a victim of the never-ending economic slump in this once prosperous city since the Asian Economic Crisis hit in 1997, I have been terrified for the past couple of months to be living in the region with the highest SARS infections per capita and highest such related fatality rate, I have lived through the facts of certain officials' inability to execute some kind of control over, never mind mend, these and other epidemics to deem our government incompetent.

According to the latest survey conducted by the Public Opinion Program at the University of Hong Kong, 82% of respondents are dissatisfied with the current economic conditions. While a mere 19% are satisfied with the political conditions and 26% were satisfied with the social conditions. The support rate for secretaries of departments and directors of bureaus averaged to less than 52%, while that for the chief executive has not reached the 50% mark since July 2002.

I can't resolve on whether people of Hong Kong should be more miserable to have our future lie in the hands of a government whose actions so little of us can find the heart to endorse or to be stuck with a government leader who needs to choke on no pretzel to attain recognition for stupidity.

There is no doubt that Article 23 will be passed as a law by next week, I believe most of the 500,000 of us knew better than to think that our protest, or anything else for that matter, could inject enough influence for the government to consider otherwise. Though I admit we should appreciate Mr. Tung and Mrs. Ip for all they have done. If it weren't for them and this article, numerous Hong Kongers including myself would have remained oblivious of the social conditions we're in; we wouldn't have realized the meaning in scrutinizing government policies; we wouldn't have spent a public holiday roasting ourselves under the sun in the middle of Victoria Park amongst seas of people when the temperature of 33C was clearly more ideal for playing water sports offshore some remote beach.

I was born in Hong Kong, obviously I didn't have the option to choose different. My family decided to migrate to Canada 13 years ago, I was too young back then to have a say in the arrangement. This time around it was my own choice to return to Hong Kong. And I am more in love with Hong Kong than ever. I owe myself to at least care.