How I wish OC would end

I must declare beforehand that I am not a politically correct person. I am biased and support student movements. I am sympathetic because I feel guilty for failing to bring about a more democratic Hong Kong for them, leaving them to fight for it themselves. In my younger days, I participated rather marginally social movements, not patriotic movements in Hong Kong because by the time I entered university, I had missed the Protect Diaoyu Islands Movement. Moreover, I have not visited the Occupy sites. I have never been on the ground to feel the mood. I have not even responded to the Church's invitation to participate in prayer meetings, Eucharistic Adoration, Stations of the Cross etc. Therefore, you may question my "qualification" to speak on the topic.

As an armchair ethicist, teaching my students DSE Ethics and Religious Studies, I prayed to God when OC started prematurely. I prayed to the Archangels and guardian angels to protect the people when tear gas was fired to disperse the crowd in Admiralty. When misinformation and fallacies were freely floating around in the cyber space, I engaged in debates with various WhatsApp groups including my beloved intelligent LSC old students and in particular a heated face-to-face analysis with one of my Catholic colleagues. All in all, I submit everything to God's will. I believe that God has the best arrangements for all of us, the Central Government,  HKSAR Government, the Occupiers and the rest of the world. After the baptism of this Umbrella Movement, the future of social unrest in Hong Kong will never be the same anymore. (I don't think it is appropriate to call it an "Umbrella Revolution" or "Colours Revolution" because Hong Kong cannot be independent, not to mention overthrowing the HKSAR Government or Central Government.) We have entered a New Age of social actions. The citizens of Hong Kong are aware of new possibilities and channels to express and fight for their rights. And this cannot be unlearned.

I thank my daughter for telling me to see things in the eyes of young people of these days. She said that this Umbrella Movement is a clash of old mentality vs. new mentality; old paradigm vs. new paradigm. She is right. While the government employs a PIE mentality (Proposal-Implementation-Evaluation. It was rumoured that the police's budget to deal with OC was 7 days), the Occupation Movement is impromptus and leaderless. While the police charges the crowd with formation, batons, pepper spray and tear gas, the crowd was like playing online games in teams. While many old soldiers saw signs of early phases of June 4, some even mistook the young people as Red Guards, the crowd wax and wane when "it was evenings and it was mornings, a 22^nd day". How could they be able to see otherwise because a show of a certain man proposing to a lady whom he met just for a few days in the movement was put up in Mongkok in front of TV cameras. There are still people who continue to adhere to their old mentality in believing that our students are naive; that there is a "Black Hand", a foreign country in the background to manipulate them etc. Sometimes, I myself fell victim to this mentality. I do not apologize because I am no longer young. For example, I think the HKSAR Government is playing a cat vs. mouse game with the student leaders in the so called "dialogue". The topics of the scheduled meeting were about constitutionality and legality! One day before the meeting, the Government called it off because the students were "insincere and putting forth unrealistic demands, continuously moving the football goal" etc. Frankly speaking, I find no sign for optimism in the upcoming "dialogue" next Tuesday, though I see it as a contest between David and Goliath, but the student leaders are no David! I wish I were wrong because my old mentality is affecting my judgment. But I will definitely pray to God to side the students because this is God's MO. He opts for the poor and the weak and tells us to do so.

The seeds of conflict have been sowed long time ago in a soil of discontent. At the outbreak of SARS epidemic in 2003, all the citizens of Hong Kong were united and stood by the side of the HKSAR Government, cooperating with her to fight against a deadly virus which affected everybody. To deliver the HKSAR from bankruptcy, the Central Government benevolently started sending mainland tourists to cross the border shopping. However, discontents started to brew when government policies are getting more and more lopsided to benefit the rich, creating wider and wider income gaps; when young people have to live with their parents because prices of housing are sent soaring to heavens; when the shopping sprees of mainland visitors push up prices, grab up our milk powders and benefit only a handful of people; when the CE handed out government posts to award his election supporters and when scandals broke out one after another among his handpicked supporters etc. Perhaps the CE was following orders from the CG to demonstrate his loyalty but it was at the expenses of the citizens. Naturally, citizens want to choose a CE after their hearts. When hundreds of people came out to mourn for the death of a dog on the MTR tracks, I was surprised at the pressurized frustrations of people against big corporations. When thousands of people took to the street in these twenty odd days, I was surprised no more.

I said earlier that the upcoming Tuesday dialogue fails to inspire optimism in me. One of the reasons is the chairperson of the dialogue. The Government claimed her intention to look for a person of high virtuous calibre and is highly respected in the society (德高望重) to chair the meeting. It turns out that the person is another CE supporter handpicked to head one of the universities in Hong Kong. Don't make me wrong. I do not question his virtue and fame. Moreover, I admire his courage because many other university chancellors shy away from this invitation because this job pleases nobody. Rather, I lament for the CG because it fails to attract competent enough people, leaving the posts to be grabbed up by people of lesser calibre, the Gresham's Law (405 BC) as applied in governments. Once again, I am still unable to shake off my old mentality.

When all hopes seem gone, I still have my trump card. Today is Mission Sunday. In the gospel reading, Jesus promised his disciples to be with them always even unto the end of the world (Matthew 28:20). I am sure he is accompanying the Christians among the Movements. His presence will bless all the people present, students, mobs, police and onlookers etc. And like most people in Hong Kong, I pray that OC would end soon without bloodshed.

How do I wish OC would end? I suggest the three OC organizers and student leaders of all parties turning themselves in to the Wan Chai Police Station asap. Hopefully, it will trigger a wave of self-surrenders until a tipping point is reached that the crowd at Admiralty will wane. When Admiralty is dissolved, Mongkok will melt away.

Dear Father, hear my prayer. Not what I will, but what thou wilt. Amen.