Hong Kong must not become a breeding ground for hate

In recent weeks, there have been protests organised against parallel trading in the New Territories and Tsim Sha Tsui. The scenes are getting more and more ugly and disturbing, with shops being forced to close and people who are not parallel traders being molested and bullied.

Although the people who have organised these events try to blame the government for what has happened, a clear and strong message about such radical and irrational activities must be sent across society, not for the sake of our tourism or economy, but in defence of Hong Kong's core values.

It is totally unacceptable for people to take things into their own hands just because they are dissatisfied or frustrated. If they do so, society will end in chaos.

People are unhappy about many things. Some strongly believe that the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance scheme is being abused while hardworking citizens get little help; some hate the fact that those earning HK$80,000 a month or driving a limo are still living in public housing estates, even as those in desperate need have to wait years for their turn. Some think that those owning more than one property are fuelling housing prices.

The list goes on. Will we one day see CSSA recipients, public housing tenants and landlords of more than one property being besieged and insulted on the street?

Parallel trading is not illegal in Hong Kong and many people do nothing wrong by buying cosmetics and electronic appliances for trade. Whenever new iPhone models are released, many in Hong Kong will try hard to log onto the busy Apple webpage to place their orders. Are they such big fans that they desperately want the new models at the earliest time? A few maybe, but most just want to profit from selling the phones to parallel traders. We should not have double standards and approve of something only when it benefits us and despise it when we think our interests are affected.

What's more, if we believe that someone is engaged in illegal activities, we should call the police or related government departments. For example, we could report suspected cases of breaching conditions of stay and breaching land lease conditions. If we believe government departments are not doing their job, we can lodge a complaint with the Ombudsman. We can even organise peaceful protests.

Hong Kong cannot become a city where ordinary people become targets of abuse or are even attacked just because they are suspected of engaging in activities someone else dislikes, or where legitimate businesses are under threat just because someone hates their customers, or where people disregard law and order because they simply want to vent their anger.

Hong Kong should not become a breeding ground for hatred. If the protesters are genuinely against parallel traders, they should demonstrate at the distribution points instead of going to a shopping mall in Tsim Sha Tsui or storming a jewellery shop. They should try to find the parallel traders, a significant number of whom are Hong Kong people, instead of seeking to insult every person they think is from the mainland. They should have apologised to the woman they wrongly targeted as a suspected parallel trader.

If we listen to what some of the protesters have said, it is clear they actually dislike all mainland people, blaming them for competing for resources and for all sorts of problems that Hongkongers are facing. Some are simply removed from reality and even call for independence. In a nutshell, some of their feelings are so extreme that parallel trading is just a convenient excuse for their actions.

We face many problems and challenges and need to find a way out, but the answers do not lie in actions that will hurt our city and only make things worse.

Susan Chan is secretary general of the Business and Professionals Federation of Hong Kong