To the protestors we say, Go home. You won. Go home. The peaceful marches in which up to 2 million took to the streets reverberated around the world. The Government’s “Palace of Vanities” at Tamar was rocked to its foundations. The Secretary for Security and the top police officers were made to look like ditherers. In Peking the Communist Party rulers watched in alarm. Hong Kong people were awed by their magnificent young neighbours who protested peacefully in their hundreds of thousands.
To the police we say don’t brook any nonsense whatsoever from those who are violent or deface property. The attack on China’s liaison office yesterday was lamentable. Senior police officers should dispatch squads of fit young officers in pincer movements cutting out the bad elements, arresting them and bundling them into paddy wagons. Once convicted, hundreds of them should be banged up in jail. The police are said to be looking for 700 trouble-makers responsible for violent confrontations. As for the bully-boys, masked, white-clad men wielding sticks who attacked commuters at Yuen Long MTR station, they are likely to be triads paid to cause bloody mayhem. The police may be able to track them down using CCTV and mobile phone film. Full force of the law for these thugs. And for their paymasters. The increasing political polarisation of Hong Kong is regrettable.
The current protests are a direct challenge to Communist Party authority. This is the most serious situation since 1997. How long will Peking be patient? How much loss of face will they swallow? Will the Party’s authoritarian tendency result in a crackdown? The Hong Kong Police Force can put only so many officers on the streets at a time. It is unlikely, but they could be over-whelmed by sheer numbers of protestors. Then, would we see the uniforms of the People’s Liberation Army on the streets? This would lead to rivers of blood. Either revolution or a 1950s Hungary-like crushing. More likely the latter. The stock market would collapse, the property market would tank.
There is room for hope. More rallies are planned, but the numbers of marchers may continue to fall. Welcome movements are afoot, such as the elderly people handing out flowers to the police, trying to calm and charm. Perhaps the 1000 Hearts movement where ordinary people make pocket hearts to hand out should be introduced here. Hong Kong needs calm, tolerance of opposing views, a return to quietly getting on with business and perhaps most of all wisdom on all sides.
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