LettersTo solve Hong Kong’s protest crisis, focus on the issue that matters to all: how to help the city thrive
- The debate on finding a way out of this crisis has become polarised and emotive. We must reframe the discussion and seek the high road
As with so many of today’s polarising and emotive issues, there is an increasing risk in Hong Kong that the focal issue becomes so clouded by the labels applied to those who hold views different to our own that constructive debate and reconciliation becomes utterly impossible. As soon as a label is given to one group holding and expressing one view – “pro vs anti”, “leaver vs remainer”, “black shirt vs white shirt” – its views become automatically wrong and offensive to all other groups, and are dismissed accordingly.
The antidote may be to reframe the debate at a higher level, creating new space where there is common interest and the views of all “sides” can be heard differently and more constructively. So rather than “What should or shouldn’t the government/police/Beijing/protesters do to stop the violence?”, perhaps the question could be framed as “How does Hong Kong thrive and flourish as a special administrative region of the China?”. Surely that is a question all parties have a common interest in solving, and which is a real reflection of what we must, individually and collectively, achieve.
The process of engaging in that debate might help reduce the intensity of the other more divisive issues that are currently tearing our society apart.
Graham Barkus, Central
Carrie Lam might be wrong, yet again
Dear Carrie Lam,