Localist group in Mong Kok violence unlikely to make headway in Hong Kong political arena

The Mong Kok riot has thrown the city’s mushrooming localism movement into the spotlight once again, but observers doubt the groups can make significant headway in the political arena even though they succeeded in mobilising the crowds in Monday’s clashes.

Propelled overnight into prominence was Hong Kong Indigenous, which said yesterday about 20 of its members were arrested for taking part in the violence. Among them was spokesman Edward Leung Tin-kei, a candidate in the Legislative Council by-election on February 28.

EXPLAINED: Who are Hong Kong Indigenous and what was their role in the Mong Kok protest and riot?

Leung, a 24-year-old University of Hong Kong student, was seen at the forefront of the protest that began on Monday over unlicensed hawkers being subjected to spot checks by the authorities.

Group member Ray Wong Toi-yeung – who was spotted at the height of the fracas with police atop a damaged taxi – has denied the group was the agent provocateur behind the riot, even though it made a midnight appeal online urging people to join Leung’s “election parade” in Mong Kok and to bring protective gear.

Chung Kim-wah, director of Polytechnic University’s centre for social policy studies, described Leung and Wong’s group as having played a role in “kickstarting” the mayhem and drawing in many “freeriders” who might not have been their supporters.