Defending Martin Lee

Lucciora

Hong Kong’s govern-ment boasts that the territory shares Western freedoms, though the lack of universal suffrage has long been a glaring exception. Now comes a concerted media attack on Hong Kong’s most prominent democrat, suggesting that freedom of speech may be under threat, too.


The assault, which has the flavor of a Cultural Revolution struggle session, stems from an op-ed entitled 「China’s Olympic Opportunity」 published in the U.S. edition of this newspaper on Oct. 17, and in this edition the day after. In the article, Hong Kong legislator and Democratic par-ty founder Martin Lee called on President Bush and other world leaders to 「press for a significant improvement of basic human rights. . . including press, assembly and religious freedoms」 and to use 「direct engagement,」 rather than listen to calls from some quarters for an Olympic boycott. Mr. Lee was abroad when the op-ed was published.


Upon his return to Hong Kong last week, the political assault started. OnFriday, a raft of pro-Beijing newspapers—including Hong Kong’s largest-circulation daily, the Oriental Daily News, as well as the Ming Pao Daily News and Sing Tao Daily—simultaneously ran leading stories attacking Mr. Lee. (Oriental Daily’s subtle headline was 「Martin Lee: A Crazy Traitor.」) The biggest English-language daily, the South China Morning Post, also took up the cudgel, saying Mr. Lee’s comments would 「fuel Beijing’s worst fears about Hong Kong being used as a base for foreign interference.」


Hong Kong’s Beijing-controlled legislatureadded its criticism, while the chairman of the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong called for Mr. Lee to apologize. Several dozen people waited outside of the legislature to jeer at Mr. Lee whenhe left the building. The HongKong govern-ment didn’t muster a defense of Mr. Lee’s right to free speech. Hong Kong’s second-highest ranking official, Henry Tang, told reporters Friday that the Olympics shouldn’t be 「politicized.」


This incident is extraordinary, and not only because it’s the first time that a Hong Kong democracy advocate has been targeted so ferociously. In this case, the campaign was organized against something Mr. Lee didn’t even say. Many of the articles suggested that he had called for an Olympic boycott, thoughhe expressly didn’t. Chinese translations also changed Mr. Lee’s words, so that his call for 「direct engagement」 became 「intervention」 and 「press for」 became 「pressurize.」 (Mr. Lee’s original op-ed can be found at WSJ.com/opinion.)


The pro-Beijing camp has many reasons for assailing Mr. Lee. Because he is Hong Kong’s most eloquent and famous democracy advocate, his words carry weight in Western capitals, at a time whenChina hascomeunderintense pressure to improve its human-rights record. Many of the attacks also linked Mr. Lee’s 「unhelpful」 comments with local pro-democracy advocate Anson Chan, who is running for legislative office in a December by-election against a proBeijing candidate.


China’s efforts to demonize Mr. Lee may backfire. Hong Kong citizens are sophisticated, educated people who treasure their freedoms and will recognize a mainland-style smear campaign for what it is. The attacks on the democracy advocate have also been widely reportedinTaiwan, furtherundermining any Beijing hope that that island’s people will accept Hong Kong’s 「one country, two systems」 as a model for unification.


When reached by telephone yesterday, Mr. Lee said he was 「flabbergasted」 bythe attacks. True toform, he’s fighting backbytelling the truth aboutwhathereally wrote and believes. And that is the spirit that will ultimately protect Hong Kong’s freedoms.


[ 本帖最後由 Lucciora 於 2007-10-30 12:01 編輯 ]

廣州人喺圖盧茲

Come on,everyone knows that 'press for' and 'engagement' mean 'push or hasten' and 'negotiation' respectively.

 

I'm trying to figure that out,why the fucking bumpkins have caught on that with 'pressurize' and 'intervention'?I think the english would be degraded with upcoming yrs in HK.Well..............the kids are gonna get a goddamn problem with the languages,because they have a couple of 'good' teachers