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The Governor's "Letter to Hong Kong"
Following is the text of the Governor, the Rt Hon Christopher Patten's broadcast on RTHK's "Letter to Hong Kong" this (Sunday) morning:
Last weekend, with my work finished and with the rain outside discouraging any more athletic entertainment, I settled down to read a book written at the end of the 1980s by an American called Francis Fukuyama. It's entitled "The End of History", and it's been pretty widely panned since publication by those who've pointed out that there still seems to be quite a bit of History going on.
Actually, this is a rather unfair reaction to a book the title of which is a lot more easy to read than the contents. Too easy, maybe. What the author actually says is that there'll still be plenty of action around the globe, not least the result of ethnic and nationalist tensions, but that with the collapse of totalitarian ideologies the intellectual field has been left open to those who believe in liberal democratic values. The future, he says, belongs to these values and to those who espouse and practise them.
Broadly speaking I'd go along with that, but not on the assumption that all is now settled, that there's no more to say or do. Actually, there's a lot to say and do to make sure that as many people as possible enjoy political and economic liberty. And the words which argue for that, and the actions which help to achieve it, will be the stuff of history - unending history in the years ahead.
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You see, people can and do make a difference. Let me explain.
In the last few weeks, we've witnessed a vigorous debate about civil liberties in Hong Kong. Chinese officials decided that Hong Kong has too much freedom and that it needs to be curtailed. Not because the laws which protect our freedoms infringe the Basic Law. They don't. Not because they have undermined our stability. They haven't - even some of those who advocate the changes seem to be admitting at the same time that Hong Kong is a very stable, moderate place. Nor can it be said that exercising our civil liberties as we do has made us less prosperous. That proposition is absurd. No, the decision seems to be based on their wish to have a tighter control over life here. They don't they should but they don't - they don't yet trust Hong Kong.
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Now the community didn't simply take that lying down. It didn't react violently or irrationally or irresponsibly. But people spoke-up. In newspaper columns. In petitions and letters. In radio phone-ins. And Hong Kong's lawyers and some of Hong Kong's politicians gave a lead. The message was crystal clear, and more persuasive because it was put so rationally and calmly.