As a legal practitioner, I am acutely aware that acquaintances on this platform may anticipate an abundance of jurisprudential discourse or self-aggrandizing narratives. Yet, the formidable challenges that confront a barrister often emanate from one’s own clientele. Some have characterized my demeanor as excessively assured, but I posit that a professional bereft of due confidence commits an act of disingenuity—a trait antithetical to my personal and professional ethos.

Returning to the subject at hand, it is undeniable that Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, despite enduring substantial critique within psychological academia, has retained pragmatic utility as an analytic framework for the assessment of human reality over several decades. Today, I intend to employ this paradigm as an analytical scaffold to illuminate the reasons behind Hong Kong’s perennial deviation from a true democratic trajectory. Maslow’s construct demarcates human needs into five ascending tiers: foremost among them are physiological needs—the requirements for sustenance, hydration, repose, and respiration. When such elementary necessities become elusive, the individual’s entire existence orbits exclusively around survival, precluding the consideration of higher aspirations. Upon the fulfillment of these basic exigencies, attention transitions to the domain of safety needs: the yearning for security, stability, order, and the safeguarding of rights under the aegis of the law to forestall dread and apprehension. These encompass personal safety, protection of assets, job security, and physical well-being. In milieus beset by turbulence or compromised by legal inadequacies, the gravity of safety needs intensifies and predominates. Subsequently, the satisfaction of safety engenders the pursuit of social needs—the impulses for affection, belonging, camaraderie, and kinship, as well as the desire for acceptance and positive social integration. The penultimate stratum comprises esteem needs, wherein individuals, having established social bonds, aspire to self-regard, accomplishment, capability, independence, and the esteem of others. At the zenith lies the need for self-actualization, a domain characterized by the relentless pursuit of personal growth, fulfillment of latent potential, and the realization of existential value, often manifesting as distinct independence, creativity, and autonomy.

I previously alluded to the socio-economic landscape of 1960s Hong Kong: a period marked by pronounced impoverishment, an enduring era of systemic corruption—colloquially termed the “black gold era”—persisting until the 1980s, with universal education only reaching fruition in the subsequent decade. The city’s meteoric economic ascendancy commenced around the 1970s. Judged through Maslow’s prism, Hong Kong’s populace then wrestled predominantly with physiological needs. The exigencies of post-World War II devastation, compounded by an influx of mainland migrants, depleted social capital. The local economy, reliant on light industry, yielded paltry wages, rendering subsistence a daily struggle for the working class. Widespread corruption eroded government legitimacy, as collusion between the police, officials, and criminal syndicates fabricated an entrenched hierarchy of vested interests—emblematic of the “black gold era.”

The ramifications of this era reverberated throughout society: endemic corruption corroded institutional credibility and shattered public trust, while the ascendancy of organized crime fomented insecurity and disorder. The economy suffered from distorted allocation of resources, and for many, desperation forced recourse to illicit activities, exacerbating instability. Even the instrumental foundation of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in the 1970s, which inaugurated a new epoch of reform and economic takeoff, did not promptly expunge the residues of malfeasance. The climate of the period was pervaded by a narrow-minded pursuit of material gain and myopia regarding communal responsibility, thereby embedding latent perils within the societal fabric. Nevertheless, earnest efforts at reform, economic proliferation, and expansion of the welfare state slowly ushered Hong Kong out of subsistence and apprehension into a phase characterized by modest stability.

Yet, this stability proved frustratingly ephemeral: the advent of Sino-British negotiations unleashed a tide of vigilance and apprehension upon a citizenry scarcely secure in their newfound safety. Doubt and anxiety proliferated as residents pondered the fate of their freedoms, assets, and identity after 1997—destabilizing society at precisely the juncture when fundamental safety needs had barely been attained. Families, fraught with trepidation for the future, inaugurated plans for emigration and foreign education, emblematic of a deep-seated and urgent quest for security.

During the 1990s, as Hong Kong inhabitants still sought a secure life, the mainland’s policies of reform and economic lure enticed local entrepreneurs with promises of prosperity. The affluent, for whom financial resources translated into broader options for emigration and personal safety, often regarded both the colonial suzerain and the motherland as mere abstract entities. This widespread prioritization of self-interest over collective security underscored the pervading sense of societal vulnerability.

Thus, as the new millennium dawned, the ostensible social stability belied the question: had Hong Kong truly ascended to the realm of social needs? Some may point to the mass demonstration of 2003, yet its impetus lay in the socioeconomic malaise of plummeting property values and governmental mismanagement of the SARS outbreak, once again spotlighting the primacy of safety and economic needs above any substantive yearning for communal solidarity or shared identity.

Subsequent movements—the Umbrella Protest of 2014 and the 2019 anti-extradition bill upheaval—further exposed the vulnerability embedded within Hong Kong society. The pronounced divergence between pro-establishment and pan-democratic factions thrust citizens into ideological tumult. The paucity of international vision among the older generation, combined with the younger cohort’s deprivation of opportunities to internalize historical, political, and cross-cultural paradigms, conspired to leave the population startlingly ill-equipped to counter the encroachment upon their civil liberties by a resurgent authoritarianism. The constraints imposed by historical trajectory, sociopolitical environment, and temporal pressure deprived society of the interval necessary to cultivate a genuine sense of security.

The attempted general strike of 2019, whose collapse is routinely ascribed to the lack of union support, actually points to deeper anxieties: the ambient atmosphere of insecurity and pervasive dread of economic retribution precluded wholehearted civic participation. In a perpetually insecure environment, robust interpersonal trust and cooperation remain out of reach—hence, frequent accusations of internecine contention and chronic disunity. A society anchored at the safety-needs level inevitably generates competition over resources, suspicion, and discord, rather than mutual solidarity or communal advancement.

It is imperative, therefore, not to reproach oneself unduly for deficiencies in political sophistication. Infrequent, incomplete ascension to security has confined the city to a perpetual state of learning and adaptation. The imperative moving forward is the persistent cultivation of self-improvement and nurturing an open, enlightened mindset.

Consider that even in 2019, widespread ignorance persisted regarding the United Kingdom’s pivotal role in the Sino-British Joint Declaration, and the true purpose of the BNO passport. Many of the older generation continued to labor under the misapprehension that the UK would remain indifferent to Hong Kong, fighting for democracy from a colony itself historically devoid of such ideals. This exemplifies the prevailing deficiency in knowledge of international relations and civic rights, and highlights the lingering dominance of safety-related anxieties.

By 2025, with significant numbers having emigrated to Britain, a curious phenomenon has emerged: instead of recalibrating priorities and addressing their erstwhile sovereign regarding its historic responsibilities, many expatriates vocally advocate sanctions against a regime that never instituted democracy. This raises the salient question: does penalizing China assuage the predicament of those remaining in Hong Kong, or would more constructive engagement with the United Kingdom, to preserve the legacy and culture of the Hong Kong diaspora, yield greater dividends? Only by soberly confronting our current circumstances can we chart a path tailored to Hong Kong’s unique condition.

Perhaps you still wonder what personal relevance these reflections have. It is, indeed, all too easy to lament the world’s inadequacies, neglecting to recognize our own complicity in their formation. Our own imperfections are inevitably inscribed onto the world’s canvas, ensuring its intrinsic flaws. Yet, this in no way legitimizes resignation; instead, it demands relentless introspection, committed self-betterment, and a steadfast resolve to extend support and encouragement to those around us. Through such perpetual self-examination and enlightened assistance, we can, little by little, ameliorate the societal condition, transcending our limitations and collaborating to create a safer, more just, and more compassionate community.

Reckoning with the past is the inescapable precursor to constructing a brighter future. Let us, therefore, unite in transcending the fetters of insecurity, elevating communal consciousness to forge a world imbued with safety, justice, and equitable opportunity. For the revitalization and flourishing of Hong Kong depend, in the end, upon the concerted efforts and shared creativity of its people.

And it heralds the end times.

Chinese version：從馬斯洛需求層次看香港的民主之路 如果你認為世界不夠好 這是你和我一起做成的

眾籌Link ： https://gofund.me/042d7e3c

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