I rarely agree with Yonden Lhatoo, chief editor on the South China Morning Post, but I do here. [WayBack] I do agree with him 100%.
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I never thought I'd live to see the day. I've warned about it many times, but always assuming sanity would prevail and that day would never come.And yet here we are, talking about a complete breakdown of law and order in Hong Kong, once one of the safest cities in the world.…For months now, this protest movement and its supporters have systematically stripped our police force of its authority and credibility, demoralised frontline officers with constant abuse and bullying, and urinated all over the rule of law.
We are now paying them price. Want to add some more oil to this bonfire of hatred?
If the police are present (Government HQ), they are vilified. "What are you doing here, stopping us from destroying property?" If the police are not present (Yuen Long) it's "why weren't you here?"
Count us amongst the majority of Hong Kongers who are sick and tired of the weekly violence. And who side with the police. And the government. The demonstrators now are not for Democracy, but simply against the police. They won the case against the extradition law. So, stop already! But they don't. And people's livelihoods are being affected.
Most Hongkongers know this: that we have freedoms unavailable on the mainland. The only way it's going to go is backward. If these young extremists keep on, its bad news for Hong Kong. The dragon will strike back.
Who have we spoken to? Uber and taxi drivers, manicurists, doctors and dentists, shop owners, renovators. They all say the same. They're sick of it. Some call the demonstrators "shitholes". That very word.
And on last weekend we saw signs all over this island of Lantau, to the west of Hong Kong island, and twice its size, that supported the police and the government in maintaining the rule of law. Not a one of these had been vandalised. Indeed people pointed them out to us. But you won't see these in the western media, because they're in Chinese only and not in Cemtral.
So when you watch the news of CNN, ABC, MSNBC, BBC, and the rest, all sympathetic to the "movement" bear in mind two things: 1. It's not the majority. 2. it's dangerous for the freedoms we already have.
By the way "add oil" is the direct translation of the Chinese jia you 加油, which is usually used to mean "speed up". It's also a term of encouragement. But it also has the word "oil" in it (油) so can raise the spectre of oil being added to flames. Or as Yonden suggests in his article, oil on the slippery floors of Hong Kong airports arrival hall.
Oh dear Great Spaghetti Monster: we pray for Hong Kong.
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