CCP marked HKers as its Equal

But HKers will have power the CCP knows not.

Huge Harry Potter fan here. I turn to the series of novels when I feel frustrated about the movement in Hong Kong. I find encouragement and courage in them. The books taught me a lot in life, and always give me hope to continue the fight for our rights in HK.

I was revisiting the fifth and the sixth these few days, and I can’t help but feel like Hong Kongers are more or less like Harry Potter — we never wanted the fight, but we were being marked by the CCP as its equal and now we will have to fight at all cost for our survival.

“The one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches… born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies… and the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not… and either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives… the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies….”

— Sybill Trelawney’s prophecy made to Albus Dumbledore

There was a conversation between Dumbledore and Harry. Harry did not understand and was frustrated about the “love-is-the-strongest-magic-thing” Dumbledore had been telling him. He tried to argued against Dumbledore that he was nothing but ordinary, he had no special or extraordinary powers to fight against Voldemort.

And Dumbledore said,

“Harry, Harry, only because Voldemort made a grave error, and acted on Professor Trelawney’s words! If Voldemort had never murdered your father, would he have imparted in you a furious desire for revenge? Of course not! If he had not forced your mother to die for you, would he have given you a magical protection he could not penetrate? Of course not, Harry!

Don’t you see? Voldemort himself created his worst enemy, just as tyrants everywhere do! Have you any idea how much tyrants fear the people they oppress?

All of them realize that, one day, amongst their many victims, there is sure to be one who rises against them and strikes back! Voldemort is no different! Always he was on the lookout for the one who would challenge him. He heard the prophecy and he leapt into action, with the result that he not only handpicked the man most likely to finish him, he handed him uniquely deadly weapons!”

If Voldemort had not killed Harry’s parent or his Godfather or his friends, Harry would never feel so strongly about Voldemort. He would just be another ordinary wizard that lives his life peacefully and may even be very afraid of Voldemort, instead of wanting to revenge so badly.

This is what Dumbledore means by “love is what Harry has against Voldemort”. And this is why Hong Kongers are fighting against CCP in such a courageous manner.

We wanted our lives peacefully. We were worried about the handover before 1997, we lost our right to self-determination and were forced to accept the rule of CCP. But the CCP eased our concerns with the promise of “One Country, Two Systems”.

But then the CCP attempted to tighten its grip over Hong Kong — introducing the National Security Bill in 2003 (aka Article 23), introducing the national education curricular in 2012, signing CEPA to gain economic influence, banning universal suffrage in 2014, suppressing Umbrella Revolution, banning candidates to run for office in 2016…

And we were forced into a corner this year — when 2 million took to the street peacefully yet the government responded with batons, teargas, pepper spray, and rubber bullets.

This is exactly how CCP marked the Hong Kong-ers as its equal and we will have power the CCP knows not — love for our family and friends, love for Hong Kong.

If I have never seen my friends suffer when he was being the President of HKUSU and being involved in the vice-chancellor scandal in Hong Kong university, would never have stepped up as a political activist.If Hong Kong-ers have never witnessed the police brutality in the past months if it were not their friends and families who were suffering.

“By attempting to kill you, Voldemort himself singled out the remarkable person who sits here in front of me, and gave him the tools for the job! It is Voldemort’s fault that you were able to see into his thoughts, his ambitions, that you even understand the snakelike language in which he gives orders, and yet, Harry, despite your privileged insight into Voldemort’s world (which, incidentally, is a gift any Death Eater would kill to have), you have never been seduced by the Dark Arts, never, even for a second, shown the slightest desire to become one of Voldemort’s followers!”

The CCP gave us every reason to fight back.

When I was asked about the motivation to carry on, I usually go with the official answer — “Because it is the fight for our fundamental rights and this is the right thing to do.” But deep down I know very well that I do it for my friends and families. I want the young kids in my family to be happy — enjoying their childhood but not risking their lives to take part in the fight against a dictatorship. I want my friends to be free and happy — to go shopping with me and we chitchat about everything but politics.

Democracy, freedom, human rights are very big and complicated terms that no one really thinks about 24/7, but our loved ones are always in our minds. It’s the CCP’s biggest mistake to choose to label us as its equal by hurting the ones we love and treasure. It gave us the power to be able to overcome the fear to fight back.

And there is no way that the CCP can lure us into wanting to join it. Because we are protected by our ability to love, to love the ones around us and to love Hong Kong.

“You see, the prophecy does not mean you have to do anything! But the prophecy caused Lord Voldemort to mark you as his equal. . . In other words, you are free to choose your way, quite free to turn your back on the prophecy! But Voldemort continues to set store by the prophecy. He will continue to hunt you. . . which makes it certain, really, that — “

“That one of us is going to end up killing the other,” said Harry.

“Yes. “

But he understood at last what Dumbledore had been trying to tell him. It was, he thought, the difference between being dragged into the arena to face a battle to the death and walking into the arena with your head held high. Some people, perhaps, would say that there was little to choose between the two ways, but Dumbledore knew — and so do I, thought Harry, with a rush of fierce pride, and so did my parents — that there was all the difference in the world.