Lai See | Protesters are playing into the hands of the government

The Occupy protests appear to be entering a new phase with the police stepping up their aggression. The protesters, or at least some of them, have not helped themselves by also becoming more aggressive.

Unfortunately, the students are just playing into the hands of the government. They are allowing themselves to be portrayed as law-breaking, destabilising and selfish; while the government is increasingly able to present itself as a force for stability, rule of law, reason and "normality". As the violence becomes the focus of attention, people are losing sight of what this is supposed to be about, namely political reform. The endgame we talked about a few weeks after this all started is now coming into play.

Through its weakness, the government has come up with a winning strategy. Fearing that an aggressive attempt to clear the protesters would result in a popular backlash, the government was forced into a waiting game. This has worked to its advantage. By sitting back and doing nothing, apart from agreeing to token talks with the students, the Hong Kong government together with Beijing has successfully driven a wedge between the protesters and the general public.

People who are broadly sympathetic to the cause of political reform and who initially supported the students have been turned off by the students' lack of strategy and the disruption caused by the closure of the streets. So buoyed by the public's disinclination to offer further support to the students, the danger now is that the police appear to have literally been given a freer hand to deal with the protesters, with the result that a lot more blood is being spilt. Rather than hitting arms, legs and the body, the police seem to be hitting a lot more around the head. This will radicalise the students and undermine those that believe in peaceful protest.

There is also the likelihood that someone is going to be killed if this continues. There is no telling how people will respond to that. Meanwhile, the police gain nothing from television images showing officers on a bridge openly clapping their hands in applause as if they were at a football match, as their colleagues on the street below mounted another baton charge into the students. While this may be a symptom of the frustrations they have endured over the past couple of months, it also reflects their unfamiliarity with this kind of work.