Person Power

Victory to the people! Kind of.

Mr. Tung finally announced yesterday that the second reading of Article 23 would be deferred, claiming that the decision was the government's response after hearing the voice of the public in the form of the 7/1 protest. Obviously Tung suffered from impaired hearing before James Tien, chairperson of the Liberal Party, resigned from the Executive Council. Reminded me of Jesus healing that deaf man by sticking His saliva-coated finger in his ears and hollering, "Be opened."

Somebody had ought to benefit out of the whole Article 23 craze, apparently Tien was the only one with that insight. His resignation came as a kick in the teeth for Tung. It's certain that Hong Kongers will regard Tien as the icon du jour for kicking Tung anywhere. You know what they say. Heroes are born in difficult times. Nobody else claimed the status, so Tien happily raised his hand. In the end he's still going to support Tung with the implementation of the Bill on national security, but no other Tung supporters could ever dream of the spotlight Tien is getting now.

The deferral of the reading is supposed to allow society more time to absorb the so very complicated Article 23 and realize what its implementation entails, and our government time to make efforts to justify, if that's at all possible, the Bill and its amendments to the community. I am somewhat eager to find out to what extent the article can be sugarcoated and force-fed to the people of Hong Kong. For the last way out Tung will ever settle for is professional consultation.

My guess is that second reading will resume in no time; details of the article then will be no different from those now; and the law will be passed whether we like it or not. Triumph of the people is temporary. Victory can only be sustained once and for all when people have the right to elect those in the government.