Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office of the State Council, recently took the opportunity of the first anniversary of the promulgation of the "Hong Kong National Security Law" to put forward the most detailed explanations and requirements of the central government over the years on Hong Kong politics.
"Hong Kong 01" believes that Xia Baolong's speech is a call for Hong Kong to implement reforms. If Hong Kong society changes its thinking and interprets it, I believe it will find a way out of Hong Kong politics.
There are ten articles in this series, and one is published every day, sharing the knowledge of Xia Baolong’s speech from ten aspects and thinking about the challenges facing Hong Kong.
This article is the ninth one.
Any society that wants to build consensus cannot be achieved by voting.
Experience tells us that most elections create divisions, with too many people bullying and few people. In a pluralistic and fragmented society, this kind of low-level mathematics makes people laugh. However, modern society is hijacked by superficial politics, constantly moving from democracy to populism. From the collective to the individual, from unity to tearing.
However, many people still think that elections are a water hug to solve social problems. Invisible, it can also create problems and cause harm.
Hong Kong must establish a more scientific and realistic understanding of democracy. It must not embark on the path of tearing apart. Democracy must be built on a brand-new social consensus, insisting on where the overall interests of society lie, and stop arguing between more and less people. Through elections, differences can be rudely buried in the sand.
Hong Kong should aim at cultivating the greatest common divisor in society and break out of the dead end of ideology. This is the real way to develop democracy.
In recent Hong Kong demonstrations, people often dance Hong Kong and British flags.
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Historically, Hong Kong was a follow-up society. It highly recognized Western civilization and believed that learning democracy from the West was the only way. However, it could not explain the prosperity of Hong Kong that some Hong Kong people were once proud of as a colony without electoral and political freedom.
The people of Hong Kong have always been submissives of the British Hong Kong government. The strong leadership of the colony has made everyone accustomed to being a passerby. They are unwilling to make too many demands. Naturally, it is difficult to establish a sense of ownership. They lose their subjectivity unknowingly and emigrate in case of trouble. The self-sufficient mentality has gradually become the mainstream.
Due to the influence of populist politics, the local consciousness that has risen in recent years is a kind of vain locality, rootless, based on hatred and torn local consciousness.
Perhaps everyone is really unfamiliar with the "Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong" after the reunification. The political elites dominated by civil servants cannot lead the way for society. As a result, they regard populism as democracy, which can neither reach a higher political level, but also maintain the original stability. The situation is destroyed.
People's livelihood is what democracy should have
The populist understanding of democracy focuses politics on elections, lacks attention to governance, and neglects that the true meaning of democracy is to establish fairness and justice for society, solve social contradictions, especially deal with the distribution of interests, and this is the master of the people. True respect.
In reality, democracy is just a slogan. Anyone can speak up. Elections have become a means of fighting for power. The goal of the fight is no longer important.
The beautiful rhetoric of professional politicians convinced the underprivileged that their rights and interests will be protected after the election, but the illusion has never been realized.
In the end, the speculative politicians even upgraded the struggle for power to the level of sovereignty, playing with "one country, two systems" without hesitation, using "Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong" as a bet.
The experience of the past few years has reminded us that the tolerance of the central government is definitely not cowardly, and the country will not "fight up" like a group of fools imagined.
Striving for Western sanctions on China is purely stupid, but it cannot be denied that there are still many people who call "no separation", unaware that "walking with young people" is not equivalent to blindly supporting young people's actions, let alone pedantically thinking young people. People are cute, so they can't do anything that hurts the truth.
It must be admitted that Hong Kong people have been addicted to Western political ideology for too long and fantasized too much about the romance of democracy. They cannot see that democracy is to improve social governance. It is not a religion and cannot be separated from the lives of citizens.
Combining democracy with the people's livelihood is the consensus that society should have. It is absolutely impossible to succeed if democracy is used as a slogan or even as a tool for fighting the mainland.
Hong Kong people have been addicted to Western political ideology for too long, and they have too much fantasizing about the romance of democracy. They cannot see that democracy is to improve social governance.
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To unite many people and solve the difficulties in life of all strata of society is democracy. It is a democracy that negotiates together, establishes the greatest common divisor, adheres to the overall interests, and is fair to all groups.
If you say your own words, you will fight for others. It is not democracy. Continuously inspiring conflicts is not democracy. Maintaining a structure of vested interests is not democracy. Violence is not democracy. It is not democracy to spread lies, slander, and slander dissidents on the Internet.
To build democracy well, all groups must respect each other and build common values in society, instead of shouting out evil. Even if two million people demonstrate, it cannot break the law, let alone rationalize violence.
Whether or not "tyranny" is a reality does not depend on loudness, and "dead people" do not depend on a large number of people to decide. Moreover, "people" in the virtual world of the Internet are not qualified to be democratic judges at all.
A democratic society must be governed by the rule of law. Democracy refers to people who are alive. They are those who support wives and children, take care of elderly parents, and work hard for a better tomorrow. Such democracy is scientific and rational. The society they create It must be mutual respect and mutual support.
There is great injustice in Hong Kong society and it must be reformed, but why has it existed for a long time but still cannot be resolved?
Everyone must admit that it is not only government officials who are lazy and lazy, but civil society also focuses on the wrong issues. It does not recognize the challenges faced by society and lacks common value pursuits, which provides the soil for this inequity.
Are the riots in 2019 due to social injustice or amending the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, or even Hong Kong independence, pirates, and the yellow economic circle?
The conflict is real, but the appeal is fragmented. Until today, no one can summarize the root cause of the riots. However, if you can't find the precise root cause, the solution is bound to be imperfect.
Some people insist that this is young people’s boring agitation, being used by radical protesting politicians and foreign forces. Some people think that it is caused by police violent law enforcement. Some people think that this is caused by the oppression of the CCP. Some people think that Hong Kong is not part of China and should be independent. .
Of course, there are still some people who think that society has been injustice for a long time, accumulating a lot of grievances and anger, and it will be triggered at any moment. Any issue may ignite this gunpowder vault. The fugitive offenders Ordinance revision just played this role.
Are the riots in 2019 due to social injustice or amending the Fugitive Offenders Ordinance, or even Hong Kong independence, pirates, and the yellow economic circle?
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Abandon fundamental capitalist cognition
There is no social conflict that is not caused by multiple reasons. There are both distant and near causes. There is also contingency. The same is true for social development. It can even be said that conflict is a link in social development, and it is both the "effect" of social evolution in the early stage and the later stage. The "cause" of social change.
When we focused on the return, thinking that it was the cause of all changes, we obviously ignored the various ills that existed in the governance of the British Hong Kong government long before the return.
The return may make everyone taboo from pushing for major reforms, thinking that stability can lead to prosperity, and failing to notice that global capitalism is in a deep structural dilemma, and various social confrontations have begun to emerge.
The British Labor Party successfully won the general election in 1997 after a lapse of eighteen years. Prime Minister Belliya put forward the positioning of the "New Labor Party", which echoed the earlier U.S. Democratic Party’s Clinton’s winning of the presidency. Their victory was regarded as right. At that time, the mainstream fundamentalist capitalist critique called for the "third way" or "new middle route."
After that, Western countries began the reform thought that was later hailed as "progressive capitalism" and continues to this day.
Ironically, Hong Kong, as the freest economy, has always been immersed in the fundamental capitalist world that others have already reflected on.
The pan-democratic party, which once claimed to be a grassroots class, used free economy as a dogma, and actively supported the privatization of government assets, which caused the flames of social conflicts such as Link Hegemony. Know.
Everyone should ask, in the past 30 to 40 years, have the people of Hong Kong launched an appeal to focus on social transformation or to promote reform in the name of fairness and justice? If not, why should the vested interest groups that monopolize social resources take the initiative to promote reform?
The issue of reform is distorted, democratic consultation is dragged into the quagmire of violent resistance, and the public must pay the price.
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Looking back at the social riots in 2019, if what happened at that time was to demand social reforms, build more public housing, and improve people’s livelihood security, using non-violent means, there would still be two million people marching, it is estimated that Hong Kong today will not be devastated. Many The problem can be solved, most of the pan-democratic legislators do not need to go to jail, and there will not be so many emigration or absconding.
Hong Kong society must reflect on what the reforms Hong Kong needs are aimed at, and actively promote society to reach a consensus on this. The responsibility of politicians is to explain the truth and act as the coordinator and leader that guides everyone to discuss.
Once social deliberations are used by political speculators, reform issues are distorted, and democratic deliberations are dragged into the quagmire of violent resistance, the public must pay the price.
Hong Kong does not need these speculators. The consensus of the public is the best way to eliminate these speculators.
If Hong Kong people want to break out of today’s predicament, they should focus the social consensus on eliminating the unfair resource allocation system, demanding the government to assume governance responsibilities, and solving various income and life difficulties for the disadvantaged.
Housing is the first priority, but in many fields, including employment, medical care, education, and even imbalances in many fields must be taken into account.
The loss of development opportunities for young people is the evidence that best reflects the problems in the social structure. Solving this problem may be the starting point for solving all problems.
If such a large-scale social transformation is to be promoted, the people of Hong Kong must establish a strong consensus. It is no longer you and me. Noisy will not help. Use reason and knowledge to analyze difficulties, use wisdom to find solutions, and use politics. The courage to implement reforms is the real viable way out, and this is real democracy.
【Top Ten Reforms and Understanding Articles】
One | Stop violence and chaos is the starting point, reform cannot stop
2. Hong Kong must re-understand the Chinese Communist Party from a new perspective
3. What does Hong Kong mean by "international"
Four｜This is the brand new "One Country, Two Systems 2.0"
Five｜Reform is the theme of Hong Kong society for the past ten years
VI | Government reform is the starting point for all reforms in Hong Kong
Seven | Political elites must relocate
八｜Rejecting game politics to reconstruct Hong Kong’s political ecology
Nine｜Fairness and justice must be the new consensus reform of the society to be motivated
Ten | The ideological turn of education, public opinion, and civil society