Early last week, Madam Justice Anthea Pang Po Kam of Hong Kong’s High Court condemned former Hong Kong Indigenous spokesperson Edward Leung to a 6-year jail term after Leung was found guilty of rioting during the 2016 Mongkok clashes with the HKSAR regime’s enforcers during Lunar New Year. One of Leung’s compatriots was slammed with a 7-year jail sentence. This excessively harsh sentence had been denounced by ex-Hong Kong Governor Christopher Patten as a blatant abuse of Hong Kong’s Public Order Ordinance in a ploy to persecute protesters in Hong Kong. Ronnie Tang – once a Pan-Democrat and former member of the Civic Party but now a pro-establishment turncoat – erroneously claimed that the charge of violating the Public Order Ordinance had nothing to do with the HKSAR regime or the Chinese communist regime. Instead he laid the blame on the British administration prior to the 1997 Handover. Tang said that it was the British who legislated the Ordinance while purposefully neglecting to mention that the British administration had revised the said legislation and abolished the clauses that violated the human right and freedom of assembly and expression.
The abolished clauses initially were to stop communist sympathisers in Hong Kong from staging another riot like the one in 1967, during which fifty-something people were killed and hundreds injured, to prevent Kuomintang sympathisers from openly clashing with their communist opponents, and to stop the Triad gang wars once common in Hong Kong. By the 90s, there was no longer any need for those clauses and thus they were abolished, but the illegal Provision Legislative Council in Shenzhen – established by the Chinese communist regime which refused to recognise the one already in Hong Kong at the time – revived the abolished clauses as instruments of oppression against any dissenters.
Many Hong Kongers saw the prison term as unjust and excessive when compared with the relatively lighter jail sentence given to actual rioters in 1967 who killed and injured more than 100 people (they were given 3-4 years in prison), or that for Shi Junlong who was guilty of arson by setting fire to the Immigration Building and killing two officers in 2000 (sentenced to 8 years imprisonment, kicked out of HK but was later granted permanent residency), or the sentence for the South Korean protesters who threw petrol bombs and clashed violently with Hong Kong police during the 2005 WTO protest (they were found not guilty of riot). Madam Justice Anthea Pang refused to acknowledge the political nature of the incident of 2016 or recognise the right to rebel against an unjust regime. Instead she denied that the so-called evidence of riot given by the HKSAR regime enforcers were unsatisfactory.
This latest string of judicial oppression, which coincided with political suppression by the HKSAR regime and their Chinese overlord, has pushed Hong Kongers to the wall with no way out. Even though hardly anyone was injured, with no looting or deaths – a clash that would have been seen as rather mild anywhere else in the world – those involved in the 2016 Mongkok incident were labelled as rioters and demonised by the establishment. One could not help but remember the waning days of the Qin Empire, whereby its harsh laws condemned anyone to death for such minor “offences” as showing up late to a government assignment. In the end, people such as Chen Sheng, Wu Gang and the legendary Liu Bang decided to revolt if they were going to be put to death for “crimes” so minor. However, such hopeless oppression also reminded one of another similar episode found in the Bible itself. The Book of Exodus recounted how the ancient Israelites were accused of being a potential source of insurgence against the Egyptians, whereby Pharaoh Seti I first ordered the deaths of all Israelite first-born, and the successive Pharaoh Ramesses II brutally enslaved them for slave labour. In the end, through His agents Moses and Aaron, God laid siege to the Pharaoh firsts with miraculous signs and pestilence, culminating in a massacre of the Egyptian first-born (the first Passover) and the Pharaoh’s army during the Crossing of the Red Sea. In Hong Kong, we have seen continuous signs of mishaps and fumbling by the HKSAR regime, but like Pharaoh Ramesses II, the HKSAR regime continue to harden its heart against the people of Hong Kong.
Despite the prayers of Hong Kongers and I have offered which were seemingly proved in vain, with the times of fear edging ever closer and our temptation to give into those fears getting stronger, do not be afraid! For in our hearts there had always been a song of hope we had heard but barely understood, a song sung by a small but resilient voice that says help is not far but near. All we need to do first is to believe; only then can we achieve the miracles we long for. The First of July is approaching, but one day it will no longer be a day commemorating the fall of the Pearl of the Orient. One day, it will be the day to us as Passover was to the ancient Israelites, when the Lord delivers Hong Kongers from oppression. By good authority I say to Hong Kongers what the Lord has said to the ancient Israelites through Moses, when they were stuck between the Red Sea and the oncoming Pharaoh’s army:
“Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. [Your oppressors] you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to [believe].” (Exodus 10:13-14)
The abolished clauses initially were to stop communist sympathisers in Hong Kong from staging another riot like the one in 1967, during which fifty-something people were killed and hundreds injured, to prevent Kuomintang sympathisers from openly clashing with their communist opponents, and to stop the Triad gang wars once common in Hong Kong. By the 90s, there was no longer any need for those clauses and thus they were abolished, but the illegal Provision Legislative Council in Shenzhen – established by the Chinese communist regime which refused to recognise the one already in Hong Kong at the time – revived the abolished clauses as instruments of oppression against any dissenters.
Many Hong Kongers saw the prison term as unjust and excessive when compared with the relatively lighter jail sentence given to actual rioters in 1967 who killed and injured more than 100 people (they were given 3-4 years in prison), or that for Shi Junlong who was guilty of arson by setting fire to the Immigration Building and killing two officers in 2000 (sentenced to 8 years imprisonment, kicked out of HK but was later granted permanent residency), or the sentence for the South Korean protesters who threw petrol bombs and clashed violently with Hong Kong police during the 2005 WTO protest (they were found not guilty of riot). Madam Justice Anthea Pang refused to acknowledge the political nature of the incident of 2016 or recognise the right to rebel against an unjust regime. Instead she denied that the so-called evidence of riot given by the HKSAR regime enforcers were unsatisfactory.
This latest string of judicial oppression, which coincided with political suppression by the HKSAR regime and their Chinese overlord, has pushed Hong Kongers to the wall with no way out. Even though hardly anyone was injured, with no looting or deaths – a clash that would have been seen as rather mild anywhere else in the world – those involved in the 2016 Mongkok incident were labelled as rioters and demonised by the establishment. One could not help but remember the waning days of the Qin Empire, whereby its harsh laws condemned anyone to death for such minor “offences” as showing up late to a government assignment. In the end, people such as Chen Sheng, Wu Gang and the legendary Liu Bang decided to revolt if they were going to be put to death for “crimes” so minor. However, such hopeless oppression also reminded one of another similar episode found in the Bible itself. The Book of Exodus recounted how the ancient Israelites were accused of being a potential source of insurgence against the Egyptians, whereby Pharaoh Seti I first ordered the deaths of all Israelite first-born, and the successive Pharaoh Ramesses II brutally enslaved them for slave labour. In the end, through His agents Moses and Aaron, God laid siege to the Pharaoh firsts with miraculous signs and pestilence, culminating in a massacre of the Egyptian first-born (the first Passover) and the Pharaoh’s army during the Crossing of the Red Sea. In Hong Kong, we have seen continuous signs of mishaps and fumbling by the HKSAR regime, but like Pharaoh Ramesses II, the HKSAR regime continue to harden its heart against the people of Hong Kong.
Despite the prayers of Hong Kongers and I have offered which were seemingly proved in vain, with the times of fear edging ever closer and our temptation to give into those fears getting stronger, do not be afraid! For in our hearts there had always been a song of hope we had heard but barely understood, a song sung by a small but resilient voice that says help is not far but near. All we need to do first is to believe; only then can we achieve the miracles we long for. The First of July is approaching, but one day it will no longer be a day commemorating the fall of the Pearl of the Orient. One day, it will be the day to us as Passover was to the ancient Israelites, when the Lord delivers Hong Kongers from oppression. By good authority I say to Hong Kongers what the Lord has said to the ancient Israelites through Moses, when they were stuck between the Red Sea and the oncoming Pharaoh’s army:
“Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. [Your oppressors] you see today you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to [believe].” (Exodus 10:13-14)