Lego model commemorating "Occupy Lion Rock"
at Occupy Admiralty, 2014
When I asked a friend a few weeks ago if she was thinking of leaving Hong Kong (like so many Hong Kongers are doing or have, in fact, done), she said no and told me that she felt that she was "safe" despite being in the "yellow" camp as she was not a young person and therefore not likely to be singled out for harrassment or persecution by the police. I wanted to point out to her that the likes of Jimmy Lai, "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung and Lee Cheuk-yan are several years older than her but didn't as I figured that she'd tell me that they're famous personalities while she's not.
I wonder though whether she now would have second thoughts about her age ensuring that she'll be "safe" in post-national security law Hong Kong in light of the news disclosed by the police on Monday evening that they had arrested and detained four individuals while they literally were standing on a Mongkok street the previous evening on
suspicion of possessing “seditious intent"; this since the three men and one woman concerned are between 61 to 85 years old. (And lest it not be clear: Although it's commonly believed -- especially
by outsiders -- that Hong Kong pro-democracy
protestors are mainly young, my own personal impression is that they range
in age from the very young to the pretty elderly.)
According to the police statement issued about the incident, "a woman was emotional and displayed items with inciting words, which attracted at least 30 people to gather and
clamour" (Wow!). Based on pictures taken of the incident which have appeared in the local media, it appears that the Umbrella Movement's key phrase/demand of "I want genuine universal suffrage" is now considered seditious by the cops! What with a yellow umbrella also reported to have been seized by the police, it appears that the display and possession of such items might also now be considered seditious by the powers that be!!
According to local journalist Kris Cheng, the four individuals arrested over the weekend are members of the “9wu” group of mostly elderly people who have been protesting in Mong Kok for years. So it's rather strange, and also a sign of a further tightening of the screws, that they would get arrested now -- though, thankfully, it also has been reported that they have been released on bail (for, as we know too well, there have been too many occasions now when bail has been refused -- often on questionable grounds -- to those arrested on political charges).
Among those refused bail after being arrested was Tony Chung, a political activist who was just 19 years of age when he was detained by unidentified men (who presumably were national security police officers, since he later was charged with national security offences) as he was making his way to the American consulate in Hong Kong. Thirteen months on, the now 20-year-old former leader of Studentlocalism has pleaded guilty to secession (a national security law offence) and money laundering but not guilty to sedition (another national security law offence) and a second count of money laundering.
Ahead of his court appearance, the student activist had indicated that this would be the path he would take. "Even if I were granted bail, I’d just be able to stand watching things get progressively worse in HK and not being able to help in any way. I don’t think I’m ready to take *that* in stride. So I’m gonna treat this as a break; going to jail isn’t the end of the day", he had informed people. This even though he surely knows full well that national security law offences carry the possibility of life imprisonment. And yeah, I'm going to point this out again: Tony Chung is just 20 years of age.
When Kris Cheng interviewed him back in 2017, Chung had predicted that "“In the next 5 years the NSL may be enacted, or I may be charged with some offence". The youngster also disclosed that his parents had offered to send him to Australia to study. What a different life he surely would have had if he had taken up that offer.
Yesterday, the blogger behind The Fragrant Harbour blog had posted about a survey of 3,600 students in Hong Kong revealing that 49% of the respondents had reported that they were suffering from high levels of stress and that 52% of them reported experiencing symptoms associated with depression. And there is little doubt that the political situation is part of the problem, even for those not as intensely involved in political activism as Tony Chung.
Another young political activist, 22-year-0ld Joey Siu, took the road Tony Chung didn't take of going abroad. Now living in exile in the United States of America, her thoughts and heart largely remain with Hong Kong. Today, she Tweeted that she had voted for the first time in the US and "couldn’t help but think about my first and last time voting in Hong Kong - the 2019 #DistrictCouncil election."
She also was moved to reflect on, and Tweet, the following: "My [friends] have been in jail for 300 days now and facing up to lifetime imprisonment simply for participating in an election in [Hong Kong]. The pain is unbearable.
Freedom is not free. So [please] do cherish and exercise your rights. And if you may, do a little something for Hong Kong today."
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