I'm Buddhist, and as a human being one should always remain hopeful. Things change all the time. Nelson Mandela was in prison for 27 years, eight years in solitary confinement, but he was released and he has restored democracy in South Africa. In Northern Ireland, people of the same faith were killing each other for so long, but the Good Friday Agreement was signed. The Berlin Wall came down and the Soviet Union collapsed.
There are so many examples around the world that things do change. We must keep at it. We must keep speaking; every hearing, every motion, every statement counts.
Tibet was the first, and it was neglected by the whole world. The price that we're paying in Hong Kong and everywhere, including in Canada, is because you refused to speak once and that's the price you are paying. Silence is complicit. We lost our country. The Tibetan people are repressed, but we are still hopeful because our civilization is based on Buddhism, which is 2,500 years old, and the Communist Party or communism is only 100 years old, so comparatively we are very mature and old and senior to the Communist Party of China. Communism has come and will be gone, and Buddhism and the Tibetan civilization will prevail. The Tibetan Plateau will prevail, and democracy and the human rights of the people of Hong Kong will be restored, so we must keep at it.
That's why I'm here, after midnight, because this is a struggle. That's why the term “struggle” is very important. It is a struggle. Every minute, every day, it's a struggle, but one should always remain hopeful and keep moving forward. We will get there. The truth always prevails.