Be water, my friend, but don’t be stupid: a radical minority among Hong Kong protesters are taking it too far
- Yonden Lhatoo calls out a radical faction of extradition bill protesters who may be in the minority but are really testing the limits of tolerance
A very important disclaimer before I start: I am not saying anything against the vast majority of protesters who continue to oppose the government’s now-suspended extradition bill using peaceful means.
Yes, the disclaimer is necessary because the age of intolerance is at its zenith in Hong Kong these days, and even raising an eyebrow at a minority’s propensity for anarchy and violence gets you tarred and feathered as a nefarious agent of the Chinese Communist Party and an enemy of democracy.
So, again, protectively not addressing most of those who have been taking to the streets in historic numbers to shock our lame-duck government out of its arrogance and complacency, I have to ask those who are making it a habit of regularly occupying busy roads and besieging police headquarters these days, are you people out of your tiny minds, testing the limits of tolerance and even trying to drag the Chinese military garrison into this business?
Those opposing it now argue that the city’s government had promised the entire promenade under development would be solely for public use.
Whoever may be right, if those protesters had not been driven out by police who snapped out of their nowadays default passive mode to intervene, they would have been effectively invading part of a PLA base after the midnight handover of the site to the military. Of course, the PLA was not physically moving into the site yet and it would not have acted anyway because social unrest is strictly a matter for the local police force to handle.
It’s one thing for unhinged mobs to break this city’s laws with impunity by routinely laying siege to police headquarters, holding everyone hostage inside for hours on end, hurling obscenities at officers and vandalising the premises; it’s something else to think there are no limits to any radical action.
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Opposition lawmaker Eddie Chu Hoi-dick was leading this recklessly provocative protest, like some misguided Chinese Gandhi. Politicians and activists of his ilk, who have been directly or indirectly encouraging and enabling this breakdown of law and order, will have to much to answer for if it ends in tragedy at this rate.
The same goes for Western governments and media outlets, activist journalists and anyone else glorifying or glossing over such misbehaviour.
It’s beyond comprehension that we still have boneheads waving British flags at these protests, unable to see beyond the grandstanding when a shambolic government in London bans the sale of tear gas to Hong Kong’s police force in the name of human rights, while keeping the Saudi military fully stocked with an arsenal of far deadlier weapons to slaughter men, women and children in Yemen.
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My head hurts from all the hypocrisy and double standards, and the ignorance that allows it to go on.
If they don’t want to end up turning the public at large against them, protesters would do well to heed these words of wisdom from the Law Society: “In exercising the rights to freedom of speech, assembly, procession and demonstration, respect for the rule of law, the rights of others, the normal functioning of public services and the law and order of society as a whole should not be compromised.”
Protesters’ adaptation of Bruce Lee’s philosophy in imitating the relentless but constantly diverting and shape-shifting flow of water is commendable, but they should be careful about letting it get to their heads and waterlog their brains.
If the legendary martial artist were alive today he may well want to tweak his maxim with an added caveat: “Be water, my friend, but don’t be stupid.”
Yonden Lhatoo is the chief news editor at the Post
