By Trynkle
Published on SCMP
As a British individual who frequents Hong Kong multiple times a month, I can’t help but notice the parallels between my country’s political quagmire and the uncertainty that Hong Kong currently occupies. Brexit represented the biggest challenge to the UK when it shouldn’t have. Hong Kong similarly faces a complex future due to the difficult symbiotic relationship with China.
The noticeable similarity in these situations, and generally across the global political landscape, is that the key participants are all of a certain age group and gender. It troubles me because the youth of today have so much to give and, in a society where every other industry seems to be promoting gender and age equality, politics seems to be missing the boat.
The recent appointment of Sanna Marin as Finland’s Prime Minister should send welcome shockwaves across the global political landscape. The world is changing socially and our mindsets need to adapt to it. There needs to a refocus on micro level politics that concern the day to day lives of those who represent the democracy we are fighting to save: education, health, care for the elderly etc, these need to come back to the forefront.
Bringing this back to Hong Kong, I think the youth have shown they have much to vocalise and now is the time to do it through the correct political and social channels focusing on the key areas mentioned above. Those that conducted the Handover of Hong Kong in 1997, will not be directing the Hong Kong for future generations. It is time to utilise the learnings of the past but apply them to the future in our socially changing and tech dominated world. Let me leave you with this, Queen Victoria ratified the Treaty of Nanjing when she was 23 so there is plenty of space for our youth to change the world.