The colleague said, last Friday 8.18 rally case verdict and after the court adjourned, many spectators from the sad, some sobbing, some “shouting”, even the senior counsel who has always been calm and relaxed can not help but shed tears. Hearing the words of colleagues almost instantly want to return to him: “the same sad nasal sore, it took a lot of effort to control not to shed tears.” We shed tears not only for the sentenced defendants, but also not only for these representatives of Hong Kong people who have been fighting for democracy and freedom in Hong Kong for many years, but also for the current situation and future of Hong Kong!
The 8.18 defendants should have been cherished for their years of hard work
For example, Lee Cheuk-yan, who was sentenced to immediate imprisonment for more than a year. He is a civil engineering graduate of the University of Hong Kong in the late 1970s. Many of his contemporaries are senior officials and top executives of large enterprises, and by now they are already in their harvest period or have long retired to enjoy their happiness. However, Cheuk-yan chose the path of fighting for the rights and interests of office workers and wage earners, and has been fighting for the rights and interests of workers and democracy for the public for decades. I still remember that after the June 4 crackdown in 1989, Lee Cheuk-yan, who was in Beijing for support, was taken away by mainland law enforcement officers on the plane when he returned to Hong Kong, and his whereabouts were unknown.
When he finally returned safely a few days later, many people went to the airport to greet him, and they were so excited that they shed tears. For the next 30 years, Lee Cheuk-yan has been fighting for workers’ rights and interests in a peaceful, rational and non-violent manner, promoting democracy in Hong Kong and supporting human rights and democracy activists in the Mainland. Such a person, who is dedicated to fighting for social justice regardless of his personal interests, should be cherished and respected by the society; yet he was jailed and lost his freedom because of a peaceful demonstration. How could the people who went to the court and witnessed this injustice not shed tears when they heard this absurd news?
Mr. Martin Lee, who is respected as the father of democracy in Hong Kong, was lucky to be sentenced by the judge to 11 months in jail with a two-year suspended sentence, so he did not have to go to jail immediately. After the hearing, the veteran barrister, who is at the top of Hong Kong’s barristers’ rolls, boarded his car and left without saying a word, only greeting the crowd of reporters who had been questioning him. It is not easy for outsiders to guess why the ever eloquent Mr. Li did not say a word about the verdict of the 8.18 case. Perhaps it is because his heart is heavy at the sight of his long-time comrades suddenly being in prison, and his pain is unspeakable; perhaps it is because the verdict is too weak and strange for him, an “old man of the profession”, to be speechless; perhaps it is because he feels that the road to democracy is difficult and his comrades have been left behind. Perhaps it is because he feels that the road to democracy is so difficult and his comrades are so few and far between that he can’t see the future, so he has to be silent. …… No matter which reason it is, for many people, Mr. Martin Lee’s conviction and sentence is in itself a surprise that leaves them speechless.
Mr. Martin Lee has been involved in discussions on the future of Hong Kong since the 1980s, and since then has been fighting for democracy in a peaceful and rational manner with the Chinese and British governments, participating in both the drafting of the Basic Law and running for the Legislative Council, and actively soliciting local aspirants to organize political parties to prepare for fair and just democratic elections. Although he has gradually retired from the front line, he still does not take a back seat in the fight for democracy and is never absent from peaceful marches and rallies.
The law tends to serve the regime rather than the people
In the 1990s, he lobbied the United States to renew China’s Most Favored Nation (MFN) status in order to help the export of mainland products, in order to prevent the regression of China’s economic development and opening-up reforms. Such a legal and political elite, such a long-time fighter for the greater good of Hong Kong, was arrested and prosecuted for taking part in a peaceful and orderly march, and almost became a prisoner of the state and was imprisoned, how can the public and even the international community not sigh speechlessly, how can not mourn inexplicably!
Another legal elite who was almost imprisoned, Ms. Ng Nui Yee, also did not say anything after the court adjourned, and just left the West Kowloon Court Building quietly. The reason why Ng chose not to speak is more understandable, after all, she had already published a thousand-word statement before the verdict, making her feelings clear to the judge and the public. She read the statement herself in court, and it was a powerful, heartfelt and moving statement. Some of the sentences are as follows
“I stand the law’s good servant but the people’s first. For the law must serve the people, not the people the law. For the law must serve the people, not the people the law.”
However, Wu’s impassioned speech could not move the presiding judge, nor could it reverse the reality that the law is increasingly serving the regime rather than the people, nor could it change the trend that the scales of power are constantly tilted in favor of the government. For Wu, her disappointment is beyond words. As for the general public, especially those who are thirsty for democracy and freedom, they have seen one righteous person after another being arrested, prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to prison, which is really a sadness that cannot be broken.
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