Social Reconciliation Project

Background

In early 2019, The Hong Kong government intended to amend the Extradition Bill in order to handle a murder case of a Hong Kong citizen that occurred in Taiwan. The plan and actions of the government have aroused broad attention in Hong Kong society. To oppose this amendment on the Extradition Bill, a series of demonstrations and rallies have broken out since June 2019. The never-ending protests and suppressions with the escalation of forces from the police and the demonstrators during conflicts have torn the society aparts unprecedentedly. The irreversible damages caused in government-civic relationships will definitely hinder the social and economic development in the coming future. Relationship repairment has become a difficult and indispensable mission at the moment.

Literature Review

Scholars who study political reconciliation have different approaches to reconciliation. Communitarians believe that a true reconciliation must involve the apology of the offender and forgiveness of the victims. They argue that apology is the only way to make the offender feel guilty and to take responsibility for their transgressions, while forgiveness is the only way to remove hatred and negative emotions from the victims toward offenders. They believe that reconciliation with apology and forgiveness can heal the wounded social relationship and cease the never-ending conflicts.

On the other hand, scholars who support Agonism believe that oppositions in the political realm are inevitable. Unlike Communitarians, they argue that a democratic system maintaining the diversity of voices fairly is the only way to benefit social development. They criticise Communitarians for preaching forgiveness in reconciliation blindly will lead to the removal of voices in the society. For Agonist, forgiveness is not the condition for reconciliation.

Other scholars (i.e. Colleen Murphy and Ernesto Verdeja) proposed some practical ways in order to carry out social reconciliation based on Agonism. They claimed that to ensure the diversity of voices in society and to maintain civic engagement in policy making, the government or state should revisit its structural completeness and the transparency of the rule of law. They also argue that the society should grant symbolic and material recognition to victims in conflicts. Such as building monuments for mourning the dead or provide social, political and material resources for the victims in the conflict. These kinds of reconciliation are based on the respect for society and the rule of law.

Objectives

The abovementioned discussions and arguments show that reconciliation, forgiveness and justice are three inseparable concepts. The Catholic Ethical Tradition has covered this study and debate since the biblical time. The perspective from the Catholic tradition would shed light on the debate of reconciliation. The Centre for Catholic Studies in The Chinese University of Hong Kong has started a research project in 2019 to investigate the conceptual relationship between “Reconciliation”, “Forgiveness” and “Justice” from the perspective of the Catholic tradition. At the same time, we also want to examine the possibility of carrying out a reconciliation project in Hong Kong.

Plan

This research project can be divided into three stages, the first stage is to lay down the theoretical framework for the study of the conceptual relationship between “Reconciliation”, “Forgiveness” and “Justice” from the Catholic tradition. We also investigate the worldwide cases and examples of reconciliation projects to examine their reasons of success and failure.

Since Hong Kong teenagers and middle school students have largely participated in the anti-extradition bill movement in 2019, the second stage of this research project is a qualitative and quantitative combined study about the social attitude and values of Hong Kong middle school students on anti-extradition bill movement. Their attitudes and thoughts on “Reconciliation”, “Forgiveness” and “Justice” are valuable references for making the reconciliation education project.

The final stage is we, integrating the result gained from the first and second stage, will design a reconciliation education program for secondary school students followed by a teachers formation and a pilot run in certain schools.

Slide image: The sculpture “Reconciliation” by Vasconcellos, Coventry Cathedral.