Stop Tightening The Dead Knot, Urges John Tsang

Former Financial Secretary John Tsang has called on all sides to show patience and try to untie what he called a “dead knot” in Hong Kong society as a result of the extradition bill controversy.

Tsang made the remarks in an article published in Mingpao on Wednesday, and a video on his social media page.

The former top official, who ran in the last Chief Executive election and lost to Carrie Lam, said many Hong Kong people have been working hard so that the children and young people have hope and feel loved.

But he noted that what happened in the past two months had made a lot of people anxious.

Tsang said some children whose parents are police officers are worried that they’d be bullied at school, while on the other hand, many young protesters were being labelled as “losers” who only took to the streets because “they could not afford to buy a flat”.

He asked whether the young protesters’ values centred only on materialism, or whether the older generations had been ignoring what they actually were looking for.

Tsang said time and patience are needed to untie the dead knot in Hong Kong, and both sides should stop pulling it tighter. They should stop pointing fingers and restart a dialogue, he said.

“This is not a war, there is no enemy, but only family members,” he said.

“There are people of different ages, with different occupations and identities, as well as political believes, but we are all Hongkongers, belonging to the same family under the same roof.”

He said family members are capable of “forgiveness and reconciliation”, and cautioned against rising rivalry, using a quote widely attributed to Indian civil rights leader Mahatma Gandhi: “an eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world go blind”.