Jottings from the Granite Studio

Donald Tsang (amusingly dubbed “Darth Bow Tie” by the chattering set) seems to have gotten himself in a bit of sticky wicket:

From AP:

Hong Kong’s leader said Friday that too much democracy could lead to another Cultural Revolution, when gangs of youths were given free rein to persecute suspected government opponents in mainland China.

Donald Tsang’s comments quickly drew criticism from pro-democracy lawmakers who questioned his willingness to fight for democracy in Hong Kong. Days earlier, Tsang delivered an annual policy address that was criticized for lacking a timetable for establishing full democracy in the former British territory.

Tsang said Hong Kong must promote democratic development without compromising social stability and government efficiency.

“If you go to the extreme … you have the Cultural Revolution,” Tsang said on government-run RTHK radio. “For instance in China when people take everything into their hands, then you cannot govern the place.”

While the roots of the Cultural Revolution are complex, the cliff notes version* is that it occurred when Mao (put to pasture by a committee of leaders including Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping) and those in Mao’s inner circle decided to do an end run around their own party and government by building a cult of personality around the Chairman. Mao and those close to him felt that the deliberative, bureaucratic and, dare I say it, far more rational political and economic policies of Deng and Liu were taking China “down the Capitalist road.”

Mao was actually right. Deng and Liu were making plans not too dissimilar from those Deng would eventually put in place in the 1980s. (Imagine where China would be today with a twenty-year head start AND no Cultural Revolution.) No matter. Mao wanted a streamlined, revolutionary government where he and he alone could make decisions as to what was best for state, party, and the people. The Cultural Revolution was not an experiment in democracy gone awry. Instead it is an example of what happens in an undemocratic society when a paramount leader gets on in years, surrounds himself with flunkies, and decides to go Colonel Kurtz on his own country.

Could democracy destabilize Hong Kong society? Maybe. Would it cost Don-Don his job? Well, you know, a girl can dream. But to bring up the bogeyman of the Cultural Revolution as a way to smear your opponents is not only bad history, it’s just plain wrong.

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*Yes: I know am over simplifying here, but given the ludicrousness of Tsang’s comments, I think broad strokes are sufficient to make the point.