My Take | Hong Kong university students beat the drum for free speech, but only if you agree with them
Many of those who advocate the new political/democratic values are also behaving in ways that directly undermine or subvert them
It’s a refrain we’ve heard time and again. We must not let Hong Kong become “just another mainland city” because our core values are what distinguish us from “them”, that is, mainland Chinese. Frankly, if we had the dynamism of some major mainland cities, we wouldn’t be doing so badly.
But the thing is, your core values are not necessarily mine. Even if we can agree on the same vocabulary , we don’t necessarily agree on the means to achieving the desired ends.
READ MORE: How Hong Kong’s first night in the Year of the Monkey descended into mayhem
For the longest time and until quite recently, our core values had meant entrepreneurship, free enterprise and our can-do attitude towards business and life in general.
Now, some people prefer to redefine our core values as the rule of law, freedom of speech and tolerance. They are what make us special. That’s all very well.
But what is troubling is that many of those who advocate the new political/democratic values are also behaving in ways that directly undermine or subvert them.
