***What do Macau people think about Occupy HK protests?*** We support the students. We are also deeply saddened by what the Hong Kong government is doing against the citizens: Ignoring the citizen’ voices and applying excessive police violence against them. However, I also want to shed a light on why do we care about Hong Kong. If Hong Kong falls prey to the Chinese Communist Party to rob it of its democratic future, Macau will have even have a slim chance of a better future. The situation is actually worse in Macau. If human rights are no longer respected in Hong Kong, Macau can only be worse. If our human rights continue to be eroded, simple matters such as the free Internet like Facebook and Instagram could be shielded by the Great Firewall (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Shield_Project) at any time, warrantless arrests can also. Demonstrations and voicing out against the government will be a dangerous act to do. There are many problems that can happen, ridiculous ones, but you won’t be able to stop them anymore. At that stage, it will be too late to rectify them. To give an example, in 2014 the Macau government tried to pass a bill of greed and privilege (globalvoicesonline.org/2014/05/26/photos-20000-people-protest-in-macau-against-bill-of-greed-and-privilege/) that lets the ruling and retired Chief Executive of Macau (HO Hau Wah and CHUI Sai On) to be compensated handsomely and free of any criminal liabilities. Imagine the Chief Executive of Macau exercised his authority to get many benefits (money, power, etc) without repercussions, and Macau citizens know that the previous Chief Executive (HO Hau Wah) has a lot of organized crime background. Think about letting them walk away like that? China has a lot of corruption practices, and the Corruptions Perception Index (cpi.transparency.org/cpi2013/results/) can give you a clue, too. This bill was only reversed because we have the human rights to voice against them (zh.wikipedia.org/zh-mo/2014%E5%B9%B4%E6%BE%B3%E9%96%80%E5%8F%8D%E9%9B%A2%E8%A3%9C%E5%A4%A7%E9%81%8A%E8%A1%8C). What if we no longer have our rights? Take the peaceful Jasmine Revolution back in 2011 in China, it was stamped down pre-emptively (content.time/time/world/article/0,8599,2052860,00.html) before you could even voice out. You get no chance. Voice against them, and end up in prison like LIU XiaoBo (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liu_Xiaobo), etc and many other protesting voices. If we no longer have our human rights, essentially we have lost our home. We won’t be able to live in it anymore because not all of us are happy with money and can live without human rights. Yes, for many of us, Hong Kong is not our home. However, like many Taiwanese now realizes as well, our destinies are tied. Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau.
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 01:18:26 +0000
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