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A rioter throws a piece of a paving stone as a fire burns in Mong Kok in the small hours of Tuesday. Photo: Bloomberg
Opinion
Public Eye
by Michael Chugani
Public Eye
by Michael Chugani

Hong Kong politicians on all sides must condemn Mong Kok violence with one voice

Monday night’s chaotic scenes were a riot plain and clear, and police anywhere else would have done far more to restrain such crazed thugs

Don’t anyone dare divert attention from Monday night’s Mong Kok riot by demanding that the police justify firing two warning shots in the air. Some are already doing that. But let’s get one thing clear – this is very different from the police use of tear gas during the Occupy protests. Crazed rioters were bludgeoning a downed and bleeding policeman. He could have been killed. An officer fired two warning shots in the air to stop the attack. Police anywhere else would have done far more.

Don’t anyone dare divert attention from the violent mobs who fought running battles with the police throughout the night by demanding to know why the police called it a riot. Some are already doing that. But it was a riot plain and clear. How else would you describe crazed thugs wearing helmets and face masks who hurled bricks, set fires, broke shop windows, smashed a taxi, and attacked police with poles?

READ MORE: Explained: who are Hong Kong Indigenous and what was their role in the Mong Kok protest and riot?

Don’t anyone dare say that before we condemn the young rioters we should ask what drove them into becoming thuggish mobs. Some are already doing that in the same way they justified students laying siege to University of Hong Kong council meetings. But let’s get another thing clear – this is very different from unproven claims that Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and the central government installed Arthur Li Kwok-cheung as HKU governing council chairman to stifle academic freedom. We’re talking about localist groups who nearly bludgeoned a police officer to death during a night of rampage.

Public Eye has sided with Hong Kong’s younger generation who justifiably feel our unfair society, wealth gap, stagnant wages and unaffordable housing have robbed them of their future. We have sided with those who say the flood of mainland visitors has made life hell for ordinary Hongkongers. But such grievances cannot warrant Monday night’s shocking scenes.

Radical groups in the so-called democracy camp have warned that peaceful protests no longer work and violence must be the next step. We now have our first taste of that. Shields and weapons trucked to Mong Kok show the violence was pre-planned. We must condemn this with one voice. By that, Public Eye means democracy camp leaders must say loud and clear that they deplore what happened on Monday night. They have yet to do that. Let’s hope it’s not for want of courage or for fear of alienating young voters ahead of the Legislative Council elections. They need to accept that there is now a hollow ring to their familiar mantra that not a single shop window was broken during the 79-day Occupy uprising.

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