• About Us
    • Fact Checking Policy
    • Ownership & funding information
    • Volunteer
  • Subscribe
  • Letter submission
    • Submissions Policy
  • Contact Us
The Online Citizen Asia
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • Comments
  • Current Affairs
    • Singapore
    • Malaysia
    • Indonesia
    • China
    • ASEAN
    • Asia
    • International
  • Finance
    • Economics
    • Labour
    • Property
    • Business
  • Community
    • Arts & Culture
    • Consumer Watch
    • NGO
    • Lifestyle
    • Travel
  • Politics
    • Civil Society
    • Parliament
    • Transport
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Housing
  • Law & Order
    • Legislation
    • Court Cases
No Result
View All Result
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Commentaries
    • Letters
    • Comments
  • Current Affairs
    • Singapore
    • Malaysia
    • Indonesia
    • China
    • ASEAN
    • Asia
    • International
  • Finance
    • Economics
    • Labour
    • Property
    • Business
  • Community
    • Arts & Culture
    • Consumer Watch
    • NGO
    • Lifestyle
    • Travel
  • Politics
    • Civil Society
    • Parliament
    • Transport
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Housing
  • Law & Order
    • Legislation
    • Court Cases
No Result
View All Result
The Online Citizen Asia
No Result
View All Result

‘Father of democracy’ among Hong Kong activists facing jail

by The Online Citizen
01/04/2021
in Asia, Politics
Reading Time: 3 mins read
2
“党籍不会过期失效”  前进党称已就党籍终止知会卡拉

550,000 black-clad Hongkongers march from Victoria Park to Admiralty in the 22nd handover anniversary, saying frustration with government who did not respond to demands for weeks (Photo by Jimmy Siu from Shutterstock).

by Jerome Taylor

Among the Hong Kong activists facing jail on Thursday is an octogenarian barrister dubbed the “Father of Democracy” who Beijing once asked to help draft the city’s mini-constitution and was often dismissed by younger activists for being too moderate.

In the broad spectrum of Hong Kong’s democracy advocates, 82-year-old Martin Lee would not be considered a firebrand.

For decades he has campaigned in vain to see democracy in Hong Kong but always advocated working alongside authorities in Beijing, even as they branded him a traitor.

He was critical of younger generations that favoured a more confrontational approach and remained a vocal opponent of political violence.

Now he faces up to five years in jail for helping to organise a huge, but peaceful, rally during the months of political unrest that convulsed Hong Kong in 2019.

“Finally I’ve become a defendant,” he quipped after his arrest last year.

“How do I feel? I’m very much relieved. For so many years, so many months, so many good youngsters were arrested and charged, while I was not arrested. I feel sorry about it.”

That a figure like Lee could be going to jail illustrates how the space for dissent has been all but squeezed out of Hong Kong, even for more moderate voices.

Son of a general

Lee’s career mirrors Hong Kong’s recent history and political pragmatism runs in his family.

His father Lee Yin-wo was a general in the Kuomintang forces that lost the Chinese civil war to Mao Zedong’s Communists.

Despite their differences, the general-turned-teacher remained in touch with top Communist party leaders, including Zhou Enlai.

The younger Lee was a typical product of Hong Kong’s local elite under colonial rule.

He studied law in Britain and flitted comfortably between English, Cantonese and Mandarin. When Hong Kong was convulsed by leftist riots in 1967 during the Cultural Revolution, Lee went to defend people charged with spearheading the unrest.

In the run-up to Hong Kong’s 1997 handover to China he was one of the lawyers picked by Beijing to draft the Basic Law.

That document grants Hong Kong certain freedoms and autonomy unseen on the authoritarian mainland under a model dubbed “one country, two systems”, including the eventual promise of universal suffrage.

Critics say Beijing’s has demolished that promise in recent years and Lee was among the first to sound the alarm over China’s assurances that Hong Kongers could keep their way of life.

After Beijing sent tanks to crush the Tiananmen Square student protests in 1989, Lee started criticising Beijing.

He was turfed out of the Basic Law committee and soon branded a traitor by state media.

‘Things will explode’

He went on to found the city’s first pro-democracy party and joined the post handover Beijing opposition after handover.

But he always maintained support for “one country, two systems” and the idea that Hong Kong was part of China.

After the handover, Britain’s Prince Charles wrote in a diary entry: “Thus we left Hong Kong to her fate and the hope that Martin Lee, the leader of the Democrats, would not be arrested.”

As opposition to Beijing’s rule among many Hong Kongers hardened, Lee was often criticised by those who felt his generation’s tactics had failed to achieve anything close to suffrage.

Student-led democracy protest erupted in 2014 and a new generation of firebrand activsts like Nathan Law and Joshua Wong came to the fore — a precursor to the even larger and sometimes violent rallies of 2019.

Lee was aware that his calls for a more patient approach had become less popular.

“I’m a public enemy from China’s point of view. And the kids don’t like me, either, because I am not agreeing with their objects,” he told the New York Times last year.

But he said he recognised why so many younger Hong Kongers were frustrated and accused Beijing of failing to live up to its own commitments.

“Now China doesn’t even want to follow the rules of its own book,” he told The Guardian last year as the city was blanketed by a sweeping new national security law.

“But if you continue to suppress people like this, things will explode.”

He remained defiant.

“Even if you jail me, kill me, I will still point out it’s their fault. Democracy will come to China one day.”

– AFP

For just US$7.50 a month, sign up as a subscriber on The Online Citizen Asia (and enjoy ads-free experience on our site) to support our mission to transform TOC into an alternative mainstream press.
Source: AFP
Tags: AFPHong Kong

Related Posts

WHO panel in talks on COVID emergency status
AFP

WHO panel in talks on COVID emergency status

27/01/2023
Overseas Hong Kong journalists launch new organisation for HK’s freedom of expression and support for those in exile
China

Overseas Hong Kong journalists launch new organisation for HK’s freedom of expression and support for those in exile

26/10/2022
Chinese property giant Evergrande under ‘tremendous pressure’
China

Chinese property giant Evergrande under ‘tremendous pressure’

14/09/2021
Australia’s capital Canberra to enter virus lockdown
Health

Virus lockdown extended for Australia’s capital

14/09/2021
Messenger RNA COVID vaccines 66% effective against Delta: US study
Health

UK to vaccinate over 12s against COVID

14/09/2021
Politics

Facebook shields VIPs from some of its rules: report

14/09/2021
Subscribe
Connect withD
Login
I allow to create an account
When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
DisagreeAgree
Notify of
Connect withD
I allow to create an account
When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
DisagreeAgree
2 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Latest posts

Gerald Giam: Providing affordable homes for all Singaporean families

Gerald Giam: Providing affordable homes for all Singaporean families

08/02/2023
PAP MP Xie Yao Quan counter-grilled by Leon Perera over housing affordability as he tries to nitpick on WP’s Manifesto

PAP MP Xie Yao Quan counter-grilled by Leon Perera over housing affordability as he tries to nitpick on WP’s Manifesto

08/02/2023
Louis Chua: Not difficult to see manifestations of the severe demand-supply imbalance in Singapore’s housing market today

Louis Chua: Not difficult to see manifestations of the severe demand-supply imbalance in Singapore’s housing market today

08/02/2023
Leon Perera questions Govt if it seriously considered the link between housing affordability and fertility

Leon Perera questions Govt if it seriously considered the link between housing affordability and fertility

08/02/2023
Ex-Tokyo Olympics official held on alleged bid-rigging: media

Ex-Tokyo Olympics official held on alleged bid-rigging: media

08/02/2023
About 30,000, not yet tried and convicted, are in Malaysia’s overcrowded prisons of about 76,336 inmates

About 30,000, not yet tried and convicted, are in Malaysia’s overcrowded prisons of about 76,336 inmates

08/02/2023
Deepfake ‘news anchors’ in pro-China footage: research

Deepfake ‘news anchors’ in pro-China footage: research

08/02/2023

Microsoft sees ‘new day’ in war with Google over AI search engines

08/02/2023

Trending posts

Cognizant India transfers staff to work in Singapore as recently as this year

Local IT grads can’t find jobs while engineers constantly transferred from India to work in SG under CECA

by Correspondent
05/02/2023
111

...

No response from Josephine Teo on whether Mediacorp has been instructed to stop coverage of SMT circulation scandal

No response from Josephine Teo over alleged blackout of coverage by Mediacorp over SMT circulation scandal

by Terry Xu
06/02/2023
13

...

Adani’s brother runs SG company and registers as director with local ID

Adani’s brother runs SG company and registers as director with local ID

by Correspondent
03/02/2023
26

...

They have done a fine job of confusing us about the jobs situation

They have done a fine job of confusing us about the jobs situation

by Augustine Low
01/02/2023
48

...

Japanese-Canadian junior high school girl breaks national record with 3km in 9:02 mins

“I want my normal life back,” Sherry Drury withdraws from National Junior High School Tournament due to overheated public attention

by Yee Loon
06/02/2023
4

...

19-year-old delivery rider in China covers 5km in 22 minutes to deliver antivenom to woman who had bitten by snake

19-year-old delivery rider in China covers 5km in 22 minutes to deliver antivenom to woman who had bitten by snake

by Yee Loon
06/02/2023
5

...

April 2021
M T W T F S S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
2627282930  
« Mar   May »

The Online Citizen is a regional online publication based in Taiwan and formerly Singapore’s longest-running independent online media platform.

Navigation

  • Editorial
  • Commentaries
  • Opinion
  • Politics
  • Community

Support

  • Contact Us
  • Letter submission
  • Membership subscription

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Fact Checking Policy
  • Privacy Policy

© 2022 - 2023 The Online Citizen Asia

No Result
View All Result
  • Opinion
    • Editorial
    • Commentaries
    • Comments
  • Current Affairs
    • Malaysia
    • Indonesia
    • China
    • ASEAN
    • Asia
    • International
  • Finance
    • Economics
    • Labour
    • Property
    • Business
  • Community
    • Civil Society
    • Arts & Culture
    • Consumer Watch
    • NGO
  • Politics
    • Parliament
    • Transport
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Housing
  • Law & Order
    • Legislation
    • Court Cases
  • Lifestyle
    • Travel
  • Subscribers login

© 2022 - 2023 The Online Citizen Asia

wpDiscuz