Urgent action needed as Hong Kong’s political crisis continues to escalate
- Something must be done to ease tensions, while police must also take steps of their own to be seen to enforce the law without fear or favour so as to restore their reputation
It is time for everyone to reflect on just how grave the city’s political crisis has become. The latest escalation goes well beyond mass marches, protests and violence. It has engulfed elements of Hong Kong’s social and economic stability.
Protests have disrupted mass transport at peak hours, directly affecting work and private lives.
Hundreds of government workers are expected at a rally on Friday over the shelved extradition bill, signalling an unprecedented split in the civil service, with senior officers contending it should remain neutral.
A strike has been called in a number of industry groups for Monday. A citywide strike including civil servants cannot be ruled out. Police in the eye of the storm on the streets have been portrayed as the enemy of the people.
Yet, at the same time, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor has projected confidence in the future while rallying support from 40 business leaders and pledging every effort to deal with divisions in society, without saying how she plans to go about it.
But something must be done and, most importantly, be seen to be done. The only sign of concrete action has come from the Independent Commission Against Corruption, with an investigation narrowly focused on whether misconduct by public officials was involved in the police response to the attack by white-clad men at Yuen Long MTR station on July 21 in which dozens were injured.
Given the need for a circuit-breaker, the ICAC’s intervention, however narrow, in a flashpoint of distrust of police might, perversely, have some positive effect. We can only hope it sheds some light on the circumstances and perhaps eases tensions, even if a little.
Hong Kong police ‘dejected’ at prospect of Yuen Long attack inquiry
But the probe risks becoming a potential source of tension between two institutions that uphold the rule of law. Skilful leadership of both has never been more urgently needed.
The police must also do their part to restore public confidence by taking swift, even-handed action to bring offenders to justice for continuing attacks on protesters, such as the white-shirt mobs and those who threw fireworks at protesters.
In the wake of Beijing’s declared support and call to punish radical protesters, police have begun laying riot charges, which carry up to 10-year jail sentences. Meanwhile, the government is still not responding to the demands of the protesters.
That said, the police remain a pillar of Hong Kong’s rule of law. They cannot afford to be portrayed as the enemy of the people nor be seen by critics to be colluding with triads. Nor can they rely on the government to clear their name; they must take steps of their own to be seen to enforce the law without fear or favour.
Only in that way can they give the lie to attempts to impugn the record that earned them the tribute of “Asia’s finest”. But the police are not responsible for leadership that creates a positive environment for the city to emerge from its darkest hour. That is still up to the government.
