The dilemma for the ‘peaceful, rational, and non-violent’ Hongkongers
- The escalation of aggressive and sometimes deadly tactics in anti-government protests has been alienating many who wish to broker peace
- But if our goal is to save the city, surely we can find ways that are agreeable to majority of Hongkongers
Within Hong Kong, there has been a recent surge of groups who have been attempting to mediate – or better yet – find solutions to solve the current political crisis that has plummeted the city into perpetual violence for the last five months.
While most of us have chosen to safely remain neutral or on the fringe of the violence, many have been inadvertently drawn into the war being waged between the protesters and the government or police, whether we like it or not.
As a result, many Hongkongers have become accustomed to living with tear gas permeating the air and seeing petrol bombs being hurled in public places. As bouts of violence are many and frequent across the city, Hongkongers remain in a constant state of high alert to keep themselves and their loved ones safe.
When I mentioned to a friend about joining some of the meetings organised by those groups, he raised a rather pertinent and interesting point: “There is a fine line between a genius and an idiot, and we are all capable of being both.”
The implication was that we have to come up with solutions that will appeal to both the “geniuses” and the “idiots”; which is up for debate and dependent on who you ask.
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Every action of ours defines us. No matter how good the intentions are, the means does not always justify the ends.
That is precisely the dilemma which many Hongkongers, who call themselves “peaceful, rational, and non-violent”, face at the moment.
They are finding it increasingly difficult to support the anti-government movement, which has now been marred by violence and vandalism. Then there are the moderate supporters who want to keep confrontations to a minimum, and the escalation of aggressive and sometimes deadly tactics has been slowly but surely alienating the many who wish to broker peace.
The question is: does it have to be a zero-sum game?
For now, unfortunately, it certainly looks like it.
The protesters are not backing down. Because to them, it’s all or nothing. Many young “fighters” say that this is because the initially peaceful protests achieved nothing, so they are not afraid of sacrificing their lives to “liberate Hong Kong” – a term that has become a popular slogan within the anti-government movement.
This self-sacrificing way of thinking is something of a nod to the famous prose poem by Ivan Turgenev, entitled The Threshold.
In the masterpiece, the Russian novelist and poet eerily illustrated that in life we are often faced with crucial moments when we have to cross the “threshold”, which means making important sacrifices is absolutely necessary. For example, saving someone’s life while risking ours. And only the individuals themselves can make such a fateful decision.
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But Turgenev also warned that in some situations and before anyone decides to step over the “threshold”, they have to fully understand there are the uncertainties of hardship like “cold, hunger, hatred, derision, contempt, abuse, prison, sickness” among many other sufferings, and “maybe even death”.
And there might also be “complete alienation and loneliness” and sufferings “not from your enemies alone, but from your family and friends.”
He also warned of “a nameless sacrifice … You will perish, and no one, no one will even know whose memory they should honour?”
Furthermore, Turgenev wrote unforgivingly that after a sacrifice has been made, the person may end up being regarded as a “fool” and/or “saint” by different people.
The piece that was published more than 140 years ago serves as a sordid reflection of Hong Kong’s political chaos today, and most probably, the way that many of the young protesters are justifying their actions.
It might appear to many people that it’s heroic to lay down one’s life for their country or to die for a good cause or for something one believes in. But death does not always give life to a new beginning or change the world for the better.
First and foremost, we must get rid of this zero-sum thinking. Let us not forget we are all Hongkongers and it is a warped logic to destroy our city to save it. The city is our life; we cannot kill it in the hope of saving it.
We need to save our city from ourselves because it includes every one of us; those who are proactively destroying it and those standing by and doing nothing.
We have to stand united. If our beliefs are the same and we are fighting to achieve the same goals, surely we can agree on methods that are agreeable to most Hongkongers – geniuses and idiots alike.
So what role are you playing to save the city as a citizen of Hong Kong?
Luisa Tam is a correspondent at the Post
