In the Extended Universe continuity of the Star Wars novels, there is something called the Jedi Code by which all Jedi adhere to as if a creed:
There is no emotion, there is peace,
There is no passion, there is serenity,
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge,
There is no death, there is the Force.
This mantra maybe true for the Jedi Order, where the Jedi is in the ascendant and hold power over the Republic even if they may not see it that way, but for a world in turmoil and in need of resolve to overthrow the yoke of oppression and evil, the first two lines of the Jedi Code doesn’t work.
In response to the recent “democracy wall” conflict and some Hong Kong youths’ glee at the suicide of the Education Undersecretary’s son, the academic cum political commentator Ivan Choy from the Chinese University of Hong Kong lambasted Hong Kong youths in the resistance against China for crossing the line of human decency, urging Hong Kong youths to calm down and not turn emotional in his article titled, An eye for an eye makes the world go blind, referring to something Gandhi said in response to the Hindu and Muslim conflict that split Pakistan off from India.
Choy’s fallacy is comparing the Hong Kong situation with the Hindu-Muslim schism in India, for in that historical situation both the Hindu and Muslims of India were on equal footing, with no one holding power over the other, and there was a budding democracy in India that allowed both Hindu and Muslims to compete democratically, thus Gandhi can urge his people to lay down their religious differences to build a better India.
In Hong Kong’s situation, we are not on equal footing with the Chinese, for us Hong Kongers do not have political power to make deals with China to ensure our survival. On the contrary, Hong Kongers have been constantly pushed back, our ways out being blocked off at every turn, and our hope in the future being dashed against the rocks like the waves along the rocky coast. We have tried political pressure through the legislature, but in the unfair setup of the Legislative Council, that pressure cannot reach full power. We have tried social activism, but everything had fallen on deaf ears. We have tried a mildly physical uprising during the Umbrella Revolution and in a more militant one during the Mongkok Uprising in 2015, but due to intrigues within the pro-democracy camp all that power gathered was left to dissipate into thin air. The utter failure of the 2016 LegCo election had destroyed the fantasy that everything could go back to the way it was before 2014.
There is only one option left: to revolt. Revolution had never been about calm and being stickler to so-called morals, there is only one desire: overthrow the yoke that would oppress us. If Choy cared to remind himself of historical revolutions, ones such as Britain’s Glorious Revolution, the French Revolution and the United State’s War for Independence as well as the Civil War, none of them have been about being calm. In the case of the French Revolution, the emotion ran so high that countless people were sent to the guillotines, and moral bottom lines were certainly not on the French minds. However, without those heated conflicts, none of the change that led to a free and democratic West would have ever occurred. An example closer to home, the communist overthrow of the first Republic of China lacked all of Choy’s vaunted morals, where people were forcibly starved and beaten up. Moral and calm had never been participants of revolutions, never had been.
The former leader of Civic Passion Wong Yeungtat had a saying, translated into English it is “Resistance is about grime and toiling, not being Prince Charming.” (The original saying was Lai Ming, a singer in Hong Kong known for his charming looks, but in order for non-Hong Kong audiences to understand the saying, it has been translated as Prince Charming instead.) Ivan Choy may be under the illusion that Hong Kong has not reached that stage where revolution is necessary, high upon his pedestal that he placed himself, but for those of us in Hong Kong who are on the front lines being cannon fodder, revolution is not an if but when. Yes, all we have been doing now may seem like mere vocal jostling and seemingly juvenile antics to off-on-Mars critics, but a boiler also makes hisses and whistles before it blows its top.