This started as an email response to a contact in the occupied territories. Somehow, it struck me that there seem to be some similarities in the political situation shared by both of us.
We are at a deadlock. The Hong Kong government has proposed her version of the Constitutional Reform Proposal claiming to have a "very high degree of democracy", which according to a local university's survey, has the support of less than half of the people. 5 members (each of them belongs to one of the five voting districts) of the pro-democratic faction of the Legislative Council (LegCo) has resigned earlier in protest, and hope to cast the re-election as a referendum; an indicator of the public desire for democratic progress; and to put pressure on the administration, amid the risk of further alienating the Chinese/Beijing government.
Hong Kong is not an independent state and is subjected to the rule of the Chinese government. Although we've been "blessed" by the Chinese government that the elections of all the seats of the LegCo and the Chief Executive shall be done in the form of universal suffrage by 2017 and 2010 respectively, caveat emptor – The candidates of the Chief Executive would have to be screened by the committee I mentioned before. And there were already sayings from certain influential people that the current functional constituencies (read: Interest groups) of the LegCo are also a fair representative of the general public, and their continued existence is acceptable within the scope of universal suffrage.
In fact, the Hong Kong government can often go its way regardless of public opinions, because of the structure and current setup of the LegCo. Except for this reformation, because it's set in the laws that a "yes" from two thirds of the members are required, instead of just more than half in other cases.
Like what is happening in the West Bank, the Chinese and Hong Kong governments like to emphasis the importance of economic development and social harmony. Our governments try hard to paint democracy as an enemy towards economic development in order to sway public opinions, which together with the short-sightedness of the public, has successfully quenched some of the voices asking for democracy. And more importantly, we’ve been presented a choice in which, does not seem to bring real progress either way.
I’m not a die-hard democrat. Afterall, Socrates was sentenced to death by a jury. Moreover, it’s in my opinions that, in my religion denomination – Christianity, is not, and should not, always practiced according to the principles of democracy. However, it seems to me that (true) democracy is, by far, the best earthly political system.
As a side note, two things that we should be grateful to the British is that they've left a well-established judicial system and an anti-corruption agency, which are still 99% effective and independent.
Despite the similarities that our people both share, the Hong Kong people are better off, obviously. For food, we are well nourished that we hardly have problems of malnutrition. For health, we have top-notched medical services provided at bargain prices. For economy, we are one of the few financial centers in the world.
Sadly, we like to inflict pains upon ourselves. We are so well nourished to the point of having all sorts of health problems caused by obesity. We have such excellent medical services only to ignore the necessity of good living habits. We have so much money but rarely spend time with our families.
Heck, we probably have a better supply of “recreational drugs” which unlike the Gazans who have just had theirs burnt by the government.
