Couldn’t Care Less
Fumier has a good post about the positive side of Tung Chee-Hwa’s time in office. It offers a somewhat different opinion to the bandwagoned good riddance themed posts, articles and so on that seem to have sprouted up since his resignation announcement.
In all honesty, I don’t care. Most expats who complain about the guy, don’t really care when it comes down to it. No really, you don’t, otherwise you would have happily left the oppressive nation that is Hong Kong… sorry, China.
Most democracy fanboys don’t care. Rather than look to the future with optimism and a fresh start, they’ll spend their time whingeing rather than focus on anything constructive to come out of this. No really, the same tired arguments that nothing really will change until you get your way entirely have already been circulating.
Really, did the power for change and reform really lie in the hands of one person? If Tung can be blamed for his incompetence or inability to keep HK on the right path towards the democratic entity that it should be, why is only one person being made the scapegoat? I thought under a democracy, everyone takes a little responsibility for the way their country is governed? Oh right, we should wait for democracy to actually get here before taking on that responsibility. I guess those PLA soldiers on the street corners prevented us all from overthrowing the dictatorship we apparently live under.
Do locals care? Sure, no doubt someone will mention the apparent wind of change that was blowing conveniently on one of the first hottest days of the year in 2003 when pent up frustration at being cooped up by SARS reached boiling point. Only a few months later, Beijing decided it had the final say on who governed HK and damn, those streets were crowded then.
In a country that’s geared towards chasing the buck, I doubt it. Government incompetence is a handy scapegoat for the economic realisation that HK actually needs to find a way to compete with something tangible against the likes of Shanghai and the rest of China. Most people are stressed out about their work whatever it may be rather than anything grandiose like counteracting a perceived encroachment on their civil liberties. The average citizen in most of parts of South America, Africa, most of the Middle East, Myanamar, Sudan do actually have to worry about being taken out and shot by the regime in place. It’s no surprise that work, relationships, what to eat at lunch and what to wear seem to be the prime concerns for the average Hong Kong citizen since they do actually enjoy a prosperity and standard of living that isn’t all that bad.
Sixth form student activists probably wouldn’t care once they’ve had some sense beaten into them at the next anti-globalisation demo. Either that or life does it for them when join the system with their first job and mortgage.
The world at large? It doesn’t care enough to stop the atrocities in Darfur and the illegal occupation of Iraq, so why should it care about Hong Kong’s absorbtion into China? China has nukes and the potential keys to economic prosperity, so don’t really expect any tears to be shed either way on this. The vast oil reserves that Hong Kong happily sits on might entice the Americans into action, but then Taiwan might feel a little left out.
Okay, I admit, the guy wasn’t all that great but he wasn’t all that bad either. He was mediocre. But in a modern world that’s governed by mediocrity, leaders with true vision are few and far between.
Deal with it.
