Government supporters cannot hope to win the battle of the streets
Stephen Vines says pro-government protest may have missed the point
Let's be frank - it's easier to muster support for anti-government demonstrations than for pro-government events. Those who oppose governments are more motivated to take to the streets, while those who are supportive merely wish to maintain the status quo and it's hard to motivate them into activism.
In this respect, Hong Kong is much like any other place where anti-government protests are bigger and livelier than those of a pro-government flavour. Previous administrations accepted this fact of life and simply battened down the hatches hoping the demonstrations would pass.
However, anti-government protests show no sign of passing; on the contrary, they are becoming more frequent and occurring all over Hong Kong. This has led to another approach by the pro-government camp, albeit not admitted and strictly on an arm's length basis. It involves attempts to mobilise government supporters, echoing the actions of opponents.
On January 1, the results of this pro-government mobilisation were dwarfed by the turnout of opponents and marred by accusations that participants had to be paid to take part and had to be bussed in to the rallies.
Nonetheless, the pro-government camp proclaimed that their efforts met with great success and, as ever, they insisted that those taking part reflected the views of the "silent majority".
The key word here is "silent", because as long as silence can be maintained, anyone can claim that this keeping quiet is equivalent to support for their position. In other societies, governments are able to back up this claim by pointing to the support they garnered at elections putting them in office. They can claim legitimacy for their actions based on this popular mandate.
In Hong Kong, it is more difficult to make this assertion although, when it suits them, officials like to point to public opinion polls showing support for their policies. They are lucky not to be challenged on the contradiction of this bizarre affection for opinion polls while the administration opposes all moves for an elected government - arguably the best opinion poll of all.