THE WRITTER,
Young folk seem to be caring less about
China's goings-on,
That old question -what happens when
an irreslstible force meets an immovable
object?received a new answer on June 4
when tens of thousands of people in Hong
Kong poured into Victoria Park for the
26th year in a row to commemorate those
who died in Beijing in 1989 when tanks
rumbled into the capital and converged on
Tiananmen Square
Democracy is the ostensibly irreslstible
force,A quarter of a century ago communist
dictatorships crumbled all over Europe in
the face of citizen protests and were succeeded
by government more accountable to the people,
In East Asia too the last few decades saw
authoritarian government give way to liberal
democracies in South Korea,Indonesia,
the Philippines and Taiwan.
The immovable object is China ,The communist
Party dealt with its existential threat by tightening
political controls ,instilling partriotic education,
clamping down on dissent and censoring
the internet,while at the same time growing
the economy and improving people's livelihood.
Because of the one country ,two systems'policy
Hong Kong which return to Chinese rule in
1997 after 156 years as a colony ,was an exception
,There ,rights and freedoms nurtured by the British
continued to be safeguarded including the right
to hold annual candlelight vigils to commemorate
those killed in the millitary crack-down of June 1989,
This year again ,demonstrators filled all six football
pitches in Victoria Park,which could accommodate
42,000 people according to University of Hong
Kong estimates .Police put the figure this year at
46,000,while the organisers claimed 135,000,
But unquestionably a lot of people were there to
mourn ,oppose the one party dictatorship and call
for the democratisation of China,
TO BE CONTINUED
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