My TakeHow to sow panic for political gains

The coronavirus outbreak is being ruthlessly exploited by some protest groups to continue the civil unrest and rebellion since June

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A masked man dressed in black tossed a petrol bomb igniting a fire in the lobby of the Fanling public housing estate the government suggested could serve as a quarantine site for Wuhan coronavirus. Photo: Edmond So

Published: 9:00pm, 7 Feb 2020Updated: 11:38pm, 7 Feb 2020

If you think the violent anti-government protests of the past eight months have died down because of the coronavirus outbreak, think again. The same groups of agent provocateurs, rioters, anarchists and nihilists have been exploiting the health crisis to sow chaos.

The government has been supposedly having problems locating quarantine sites and meeting resistance from locals. Well, that’s the story being reported. There is no doubt that some neighbours feel a sense of “Nimby”, as in “not in my backyard”.

But clashing with police and throwing petrol bombs? In fact, three of the proposed sites – Heritage Lodge in Lai Chi Kok and two newly completed but unoccupied public housing blocks at Fai Ming Estate in Fanling – are at quite a distance from residents. The government has since dropped the Fanling plan.

Were Mei Foo residents, from an old middle-class estate, really so worked up at the weekend that more than 100 of them faced off with riot police who were on standby? There were messages posted on lihkg.com and Telegram – platforms favoured by anti-government protesters – calling on people to join those protests.

Several online blogs have reported that some Mei Foo residents shouted support for the police from their homes. It’s a good question to ask – how many protesters actually lived there?

What it really looks like is not Nimby, but the same anti-government protesters exploiting public panic and anxiety about a potential outbreak to continue the mayhem. Likewise, as I pointed out yesterday, the so-called “peace, reason and non-violence” opposition groups are behind the strike by medical staff, at a time when the public health system is being pushed to the limit. Some doctors and nurses openly critical of the strike are being doxxed online.

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} The coronavirus outbreak is being ruthlessly exploited by some protest groups to continue the civil unrest and rebellion since June

The coronavirus outbreak is being ruthlessly exploited by some protest groups to continue the civil unrest and rebellion since June