Yonden Lhatoo is another SCMP columnist I’ve had run ins with in the past (another is Alex Lo). He’s a bit of a leftie, tends to be an America hater and stern government critic. Like me, like Jing and me, he’s gone from being a supporter of the anti-extradition bill demonstrations, to being a critic of the protest movement as it is now. Especially it’s bigoted parts: anti-mainlander bigotry and, as here, anti-South Asian bigotry.
An ill wind is blowing in Hong Kong that threatens to add a whole new dimension to the ugly side of the civil unrest that has been plaguing this city for well over four months now.
I’m talking about the targeting of ethnic minority groups, easily visible South Asians in particular, as those who have subverted the anti-government protest movement
with venom and violence look for more victims and scapegoats.
It’s bad enough that extreme resentment against Beijing is regularly misdirected at mainlanders who have been abused, harassed and attacked on the streets in the name of this great “revolution of our times”. Now another vulnerable demographic is facing persecution by the champions of freedom and democracy as they go about “liberating” us.
When a bunch of thugswent on a rampage
in July at Yuen Long MTR station, indiscriminately beating up commuters and protesters returning from a mass rally, public outrage quickly took off on a xenophobic tangent, thanks to scurrilous rumours spreading online that South Asian men had been paid to carry out the attack.
…
”The widespread online racial hatred seeks to further polarise society by scapegoating and fomenting hatred towards an already vulnerable, visible ethnic minority community. Such incitement of racially motivated hate breeds chaos and threatens to undermine rather than advance principles of inclusion, the core value being pursued by the movement.” [two anti-racism activists’ open letter]
Let’s hope their words will resonate in this age of intimidation, when mob rule is the order of the day, and people are not speaking out for fear of being shouted down, doxxed and lynched. Evil triumphs when good men – and women – do nothing.
Read on …
