Only 50,000 people participated the annual July 1 march in Hong Kong this year. The 7 million Hong Kongers who did not might regret their decision in the days to come.
A few scenarios immediately come to mind.
A Hong Konger is suddenly detained for importing prohibited articles by Chinese customs officers under the “colocation” arrangement for Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Station. It turns out that the prohibited article is just a copy of that day’s Apply Daily. No explanation is accepted and the Hong Konger is released only after paying a huge fine.
Hong Kongers taking the MTR subway on the Sha Tin to Central link are on tenterhooks as the train passes To Kwa Wan Station due to shoddy construction. When the train arrives at Hung Hom Station, the new platform collapses for the same reason, or when they reach Exhibition Center Station on Hong Kong Island, there is a land subsidence.
Feeling lucky to have survived, they criticize the government for conniving with Chinese-funded Leighton Contractors.
The authorities reply that the government cannot ask a private company to submit an examination report.
A Hong Kong child unintentionally farts during the school’s flag-raising ceremony. The school’s criticism of the child’s bad manners is so harsh that the child almost commits suicide.
The parents report the school to the secretary for education, who answers that the child is lucky not to be taken to court for contravening the National Flag Law and the National Anthem Law.
The price of a parking lot at a certain housing estate in Hong Kong is flipped to HK$7 million (US$891,850), and queuing for public housing takes 10 years. Impoverished Hong Kongers are forced to move from a subdivided flat into a tiny “tube home” or “coffin home.”
Complaints are filed with the secretary for transport and housing, who responds that “people should move to the mainland part of the Greater Bay Area.”
Hong Kongers have to wait 10 hours for emergency medical services and five years for prostate surgery. After surgery, they cannot rest in a ward with beds, as these are all occupied by elderly people dying slowly.
Forced to lie down on a canvas bed in noisy corridors, Hong Kongers ask why the government has not built more hospitals and hired more physicians. The financial secretary answers that such money pits are a heavy financial burden.
When a Hong Konger is severely injured in a fight with a Chinese tourist, the court rules that the tourist should pay damages, but he has already disappeared without a trace.
After Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam (林鄭月娥) is informed of the escape, she asks the people of Hong Kong to be more tolerant, because mainland Chinese have their own problems.
When Hong Kongers want to participate in the cross-harbor race in Victoria Harbor, they find that the water is as shallow as a drainage ditch.
When they go hiking in Sai Kung East Country Park, they see public and private housing developments sprawled across the mountains. When going sailing at the Plover Cove Reservoir, they notice that the neighboring waters at Tai Mei Tuk have been reclaimed and turned into a large piece of land, and so on.
These scenarios are no exaggerations, as some of them are happening right now.
However, those Hong Kongers who have remained unmoved and unaffected, always turning a blind eye to social injustice and inequality, will have no right to complain.
Kot Chun is a retired teacher and author from Hong Kong.
Translated by Chang Ho-ming
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