Opposition risks overplaying its hand
- The mass rallies involving hundreds of thousands had a very specific target – the extradition bill – but the latest protests look increasingly aimless, self-indulgent and disruptive
Winning back public opinion is a lost cause for the government of Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, but it can still act to encourage general dissatisfaction with protesters. Of course, the wildcat obstruction tactics of many young people already risk discrediting themselves without the government’s prompting.
Lam now has the rare distinction of being the most unpopular city leader since the return of Hong Kong to China more than two decades ago. According to the latest University of Hong Kong poll, her approval rating has plunged to 32.8 per cent, the lowest ever for a chief executive.
At the moment, the government’s “strategy” is not to revive public trust, whatever its advisers say publicly, but to discredit protest groups, or let them do it themselves. This is apparent with the shutting down of government services – such as tax, immigration and police emergency services – when protesters blocked public access to government offices.
No major police force in the world would have allowed the blockage of its headquarters for 15 hours without clearing the area, except in Hong Kong. The government was willing to demoralise the police to demonstrate the protesters’ excesses to the public.
That may also explain Lam’s insistence, seemingly irrational, on indefinitely suspending the hated extradition bill rather than shelving it. Experts say there is substantially no difference; government officials and advisers have offered the same assurance. But, by not withdrawing the bill altogether, it keeps the many younger protesters angry. The blockages staged more recently by those youngsters – who vent their anger and frustrations without apparent leadership outside inland revenue and immigration offices in Wan Chai – have inconvenienced and angered many local residents.
Some government policy delays, though, make sense. These include holding up the contentious national anthem bill and funding for a study of the widely criticised land plan – to reclaim 1,000 hectares of artificial islands off eastern Lantau – in the legislature. Both Legco items would have provided more ammunition to the opposition to rally against the government.
Still, the opposition shouldn’t overplay its hand. The recent mass rallies involving hundreds of thousands had a very specific target – the extradition bill. The latest protests look increasingly aimless, self-indulgent and disruptive. Many of those young people have nothing to lose. The many middle-class people – the opposition’s bread and butter – who took part in the mass rallies have everything to lose if Hong Kong goes down the drain.
