On 30 September, a group calling itself FreedomHongkong took out a full-page advertisement in the New York Times urging its readers to punish Beijing and the Hong Kong government.
FreedomHongKong glorify the violence, with masked demonstrators on their website rendered to look like Jean Valjeans and Les Miserables, storming Bastille. But in Hong Kong, violence will achieve nothing because the demands of the protesters are impossible and inchoate. Worse, violence will boomerang to hurt us all. We risk losing the very Freedoms we already have.
Remember “the road to hell…”
We call on FreedomHongKong to renounce the senseless violence. If they love Hong Kong, as they claim, they’ll stop this inanity.
It would be a tragic irony if alleged these "Freedom fighters”, these latter-day Jean Valjeans, instead became agents of Freedom extinction.
Its tagline is “The Chinese Communist Party is tearing Hong Kong apart. If we fall, who will be next?”
To which we say “huh?”.
The Chinese Communist party is distinguished for having kept out of our recent Troubles. Not only is it not them who are tearing Hong Kong apart, it is the FreedomHongKong people and hangers on who are tearing us apart.
They sound like the mafia or terrorists. “If I shoot this person I’ve kidnapped, it’s your fault.” For FreedomHongKong bullies it’s: “we’ve trashed Hong Kong and it’s Beijing’s fault.”
Elsewhere on its website they repeat their Five Demands (五大诉权). [ADDED: “And not one less” 缺一不可, tacked on sometime, I’m not sure when, but makes it even harder to meet the “demands”].
Of these, by my count two have been met or substantially met, one is impossible and two others demand that we refuse to believe the evidence of our own eyes. As Alex Lo has noted, impossible demands are impossible to meet.
Of these, by my count two have been met or substantially met, one is impossible and two others demand that we refuse to believe the evidence of our own eyes. As Alex Lo has noted, impossible demands are impossible to meet.
In response to their Five Demands, we, the silent but worried majority, need to counter with our "Seven Freedoms". Freedoms we already enjoy, namely:
- Freedom of Conscience
- Freedom of Assembly
- Freedom of Movement
- Freedom of Press
- Freedom of Expression
- Freedom of Religion
- Freedom of Capital
Remember “the road to hell…”
We call on FreedomHongKong to renounce the senseless violence. If they love Hong Kong, as they claim, they’ll stop this inanity.
It would be a tragic irony if alleged these "Freedom fighters”, these latter-day Jean Valjeans, instead became agents of Freedom extinction.
