Apple Daily: 'Patriotism, loyalty, love and legitimacy', Benedict Rogers

This week, I want to consider four terms – and their definition. These four words are ‘patriotism’, ‘loyalty’, ‘love’ and ‘legitimacy’. The first three, especially, have been much discussed in the National People’s Congress (NPC) in Beijing this week – and the fourth points to the fundamental problem of dictatorships everywhere.

‘Patriotism’ means a devotion to one’s country. It is very different from ‘nationalism’ and ‘xenophobia’. Patriotism, in my view, is a healthy value – it means wanting the best for one’s own country and people, but unlike nationalism or, in a more extreme sense, xenophobia, it does not mean hatred of foreigners. On the contrary, to be truly patriotic means to pursue the interests of one’s people – and that usually means pursuing good relations with other people and defending the interests of humanity.

Patriotism can and should be worn lightly, even with some humor – witness the hilarity of Britain’s Last Night of the Proms or cheering one’s team at the World Cup. It can also be heart-felt – I will never forget standing in Dili, Timor-Leste, at the birth of the world’s newest nation in 2002 after a long struggle for freedom, listening to that small new country’s national anthem being played for the first time: ‘Patria’. It still gives me goose-bumps when I hear it.

But patriotism is about love of country, not love of regime or political party. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) loves to confuse the two, but in so doing they expose themselves to be profoundly unpatriotic.

Talk from Beijing about ensuring that only ‘patriots’ are eligible to seek office in Hong Kong is nonsensical. Apart from a small group of Hong Kongers who advocate independence or self-determination, most elected pro-democracy legislators or candidates do not question China’s sovereignty. They simply oppose the CCP’s brutal repression, and want China’s promises made under the Sino-British Joint Declaration and Hong Kong’s own mini constitution – the Basic Law – to be honored. Those who defend freedom, democracy and human rights for Hong Kongers – and for all peoples of China – are the real patriots. By disenfranchising all of Hong Kong’s democrats, and by prosecuting, jailing and imprisoning most of them, and by tearing up the Basic Law and the Joint Declaration, Beijing and its puppet stooges in Hong Kong aren’t ensuring patriotism. On the contrary, they are demanding loyalty to the CCP – and behaving very unpatriotically in the process.

So then there’s the word ‘loyalty’, which is inter-linked to patriotism in Beijing’s interpretation.

Contrary to Beijing’s definition, people should be loyal to their values, their consciences, their families and friends and their country. Politicians, in any democracy, have a range of loyalties with which they must wrestle: conscience, constituents, country and party. In a multi-party democracy loyalty to party – though of course always highly valued – should come last. Politicians should serve their country and their electors, balanced with their conscience and convictions, first. When Britain’s former Deputy Prime Minister Lord Howe resigned from Margaret Thatcher’s Cabinet in 1990, due to disagreements with his Prime Minister, he spoke of a “tragic conflict of loyalty” – and even titled his memoirs with this phrase. It is heartbreaking that the morally bankrupt Chief Executive of Hong Kong, Carrie Lam, and her ministers fail to exhibit any such conflict of loyalty and instead place slavish subservience to a corrupt, criminal cabale, the CCP, above any concern for Hong Kong’s fate.

And so we come to ‘love’. Beijing wants Hong Kongers to love the Party. Yet how can a regime that has broken all its promises, stripped Hong Kongers of their freedoms and autonomy, trashed international treaties and constitutional agreements, committed genocide against the Uyghurs, forced organ harvesting, grave repression in Tibet, a campaign of persecution against Christians in China and the worst crackdown on human rights in China since the Tiananmen massacre expect to be loved? How can a regime that, through its proxies, has jailed good people like Jimmy Lai, Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow and countless others, put elderly, moderate, dignified people like Martin Lee and Margaret Ng on trial, pushed decent young activists like Nathan Law and Ted Hui into exile and exerted shocking police brutality against its citizenry expect to be loved?

Real love is exhibited in the extraordinary example of Sister Ann Roza Nu Tawng in Myitkyina, Myanmar, who more than once has courageously stepped in between the Myanmar security forces, with their guns ablaze, and the peaceful protesters against that beautiful country’s shocking coup. I don’t know Sister Ann Roza Nu Tawng personally, but I know many others in Myitkyina, have walked the streets of that city many times, have been with her Bishop and in the Cathedral for Mass often, and so her example chimes with my spirit especially deeply. That is love.

Real love is shown by people like Grandma Wong and Cardinal Zen, who relentlessly queue to attend court hearings, or courageously protest in the street in Hong Kong, risking arrest, peacefully and tirelessly. They are the epitome of love.

Equally, Hong Kongers in Britain and around the world who are helping those who are fleeing Hong Kong are examples of love. I know many Hong Kongers in Britain who quietly, selflessly, silently are working night and day to help young activists who have come to Britain without BNO status, without money, without accommodation and in need of emergency help. They do so anonymously, unseen, unsung, not seeking the limelight but acting out of compassion and devotion to their fellow human beings. They are heroes of love.

In perhaps the most extreme example, those who helped the 12 Hong Kongers who tried to flee the city – and ended up in jail in Shenzhen – are examples of love. But there are plenty of other less dramatic, unknown examples.

Love is a value shown by people for people through action, helping practically, emotionally and spiritually. It is not something for political party or ideology. So don’t let the robots in the NPC talk to you about ‘love’. They do not know the meaning.

And finally, legitimacy – a value that comes from the ballot box not the bullet.

In Hong Kong, it is those who were directly elected to the Legislative Council in the past and to district councils in November 2019 who are the legitimate representatives of the people. With Beijing’s proposed changes to Hong Kong’s political system, in breach of the Basic Law and the Joint Declaration, no one holding office in either the legislative or executive branches can ever claim ‘legitimacy’ again. At the NPC there is no mandate from the people, no debate, no room for disagreement – only robotic rubber-stamping.

Myanmar is the most dramatic example recently of the upending of legitimacy. An army General, annoyed that he couldn’t become President by election, decided to overthrow the democratically elected government and seize power by fear and terror instead. Min Aung Hlaing’s coup – under the CCP’s cover – may give him the military power, but they have absolutely no legitimacy whatsoever. They are illegitimate, illegal and criminal – and one day will be held to account. The will of the people is abundantly clear on the streets of Myanmar, as protesters continue to defy bullets and batons.

In a more subtle, stealthier way, Beijing has mounted a coup in Hong Kong, usurping the promises of an international agreement and the will of the people expressed in more limited ballots and in countless protests. Beijing has sovereignty over Hong Kong, but the CCP and the NPC has no legitimacy.

So let us have a correct understanding of these terms. And let us not allow any criminal regime to portray defenders of freedom, democracy and human rights as in any sense unpatriotic, or those of us who support human rights struggles from abroad as in some way enemies of the nation.

Beijing and its cronies would love to portray people like me as anti-China or ‘Sinophobic’, but the reality could not be further from the truth. I have spent most of my adult life in and around China. I first went to China when I was 18. I love China and want China and its people to succeed. That’s precisely why I want them to be free, and for their human rights to be respected. And exactly the same is truth of Myanmar, a country I have worked on for 20 years, visited more than 50 times and for which my heart breaks every day since the coup on February 1. The junta charges democrats with treason, but in reality it is Min Aung Hlaing and his thugs that are so obviously guilty of that crime.

Let the true patriots around the world arise – those who are loyal to their people, values and consciences, who genuinely love their country and their neighbor, and who yearn for legitimate government. They are the people who can swear a meaningful oath, to represent, defend and govern – with consent – their people. The tyrants can’t – and we must constantly remind them of that fact.

Benedict Rogers is co-founder and Chief Executive of Hong Kong Watch. This article was published in Apple Daily on 12 March 2021. (Photo: Apple Daily)