Speak to the average young Hong-Konger and they will tell you that they do not envy S'poreans, even if our HDB flats are bigger than many of their luxury apartments. They may not have genuine universal suffrage yet, but they have a genuinely independent judiciary (which we don't have), a robust free press (unlike our poor prostitutes) and freedoms of speech, association and assembly (which opposition supporters here can only enjoy in their wet dreams). Economic opportunities abound with the world's second largest economy as their hinterland, and the gap between HK's status as the premier financial centre in the region and Singapore is widening steadily even as Shanghai is tipped to be the top dog in the near future. The shift of the heavy industries to the mainland had actually made HK air cleaner. For the past decade they've had a universal healthcare and state pension system in place. Cost of living is now lower than S'pore's, housing aside.
The above is just what I gleaned in a conversation with two young undergraduates interning with a major opposition party. (Unlike their S'porean counterparts, HK oppo parties have no problem recruiting local interns. The fear factor in joining opposition politics is literally non-existent, something that Sinkies have to experience in person to understand.) I asked them whether they'd quit HK for a S'porean citizenship – they said no. They'd stay on in HK to fight for election of the chief executive by universal suffrage – the raison d'être of the youth with fire in the belly that reminds me of Chinese-ed youth here in the '50s and the '60s.
Gone are the pre-1997 days when every Tom, Dick and Harry would stand in line and stretch their hands out for a red Sinkie passport out of fear and uncertainty at the return to commie rule. The young HKer today is proud to be a HKer, is rightfully a little arrogant, and feels empowered to take on the commie govt to demand their right to entrench democracy in their birthplace. They put the 70% kiasu Sinkies here to shame.
