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Anger of the young at HK government now goes beyond the extradition bill, and targets the legitimacy of Lam’s administration

HONG KONG — Outside the chamber of Hong Kong’s now-trashed legislature, a graffitied slogan on a pillar stands out: “It was you who taught me peaceful marches are useless.”

A protester holds up a black version of the Hong Kong bauhinia flag outside the Legislative Council building and chamber on Monday, July 1, 2019.

A protester holds up a black version of the Hong Kong bauhinia flag outside the Legislative Council building and chamber on Monday, July 1, 2019.

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HONG KONG — Outside the chamber of Hong Kong’s now-trashed legislature, a graffitied slogan on a pillar stands out: “It was you who taught me peaceful marches are useless.”

Angry protesters had also spray-painted three Chinese characters in black behind the podium of the chamber: “Genuine universal suffrage”.

Animosity at the government’s intransigence over the extradition bill, which it has refused to fully withdraw, reached boiling point on Monday evening (July 1) when hundreds of mostly young protesters stormed the Legislative Council building and chamber.

They wrote slogans on the wall, sprayed over Hong Kong’s official emblem with black paint and smashed equipment and installations.

Scholars and lawmakers warned that the unprecedented ransacking showed the ongoing public backlash had gone beyond the controversial bill and was now targeting the legitimacy of the administration.

They also cast doubt on whether beleaguered leader Carrie Lam might still be able to re-engage with frustrated young people in the wake of the crisis, despite her repeated pledges to do so.

“The relationship between the youngsters and Lam has now become almost irredeemable,” said Dr Edmund Cheng Wai, a political scientist at Baptist University.

“The fact the young protesters still insisted on storming the legislature despite others calling for restraint has highlighted their extreme disappointment with the government.”

Mrs Lam, in the early hours of Monday, strongly condemned the violence in the Hong Kong Legislative Council (Legco), while promising to communicate with all sectors in the wake of the bill’s fallout, including the city’s youth.

Chinese University’s Ma Ngok, another political scientist, said the youngsters’ rage was no longer only about the bill over the past week, especially after three suicide incidents that appeared to be related to the bill.

“It is about the moral basis of Lam’s administration,” he explained.

Dr Ma said that in reality it was difficult for Mrs Lam to engage young people in the current leaderless protest movement, and also because of the fundamental differences between the two sides.

Mrs Lam had always attributed the failure of the bill, which would have allowed the transfer of fugitives to mainland China and other jurisdictions, to the government’s insufficient work of reassuring the public, he said.

“She has not acknowledged her opponents’ fears regarding the mainland’s legal system – and I don’t think she would,” said Dr Ma. “That is a fundamental conflict.”

Youth Development Commission member Senia Ng Sze-nok also doubted whether the high-level advisory body led by the No 2 official Matthew Cheung Kin-chung would be able to make any difference in reaching out to the youngsters, given its top-down operating style.

The government had previously already set out its agenda, such as promoting the Greater Bay Area initiative among the city’s youth, before consulting the commission, she said, adding the advisory body had also steered clear of political issues.

Ms Ng, also a Democratic Party member, lamented that the break-in on Monday had showed the young people’s immense anger.

“Any youth work would be rendered useless if the government refuses to change its overall governing attitude and leave the deadlock of the political system unresolved,” Ms Ng said.

That view was echoed by pro-establishment lawmaker Michael Tien Puk-sun, a local delegate to the National People’s Congress, who called on Mrs Lam to restart political reform following the chaos at Legco.

“All people can do is take part in marches or clashes when they have no votes to pick their leaders,” he said. “I believe part of the youngsters’ anger is triggered by a sense of being under-represented in society – they are definitely not represented by the 1,200 members who elect the chief executive.”

A Beijing-decreed political reform package, which would have allowed Hongkongers to choose their leader through “one man, one vote” among the hopefuls pre-vetted by the central government, was rejected by the pan-democrats in 2015 following the Occupy movement.

Former chief secretary Anson Chan Fang On-sang called on Mrs Lam to reflect on what had led the young people to resort to violence.

“Why did the youngsters find themselves left with no choice but to use violence? One of the major reasons is after hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets, the chief executive did not respond to any of their requests,” said Mr Chan, warning Mrs Lam would find it increasingly difficult to govern the city if she failed to communicate better with the youth.

Professor Li Xiaobing, an associate professor of the law school at Nankai University in Tianjin, said the saga had showed the weakness of Mrs Lam’s government in taking the pulse of public emotions.

“[The government] should have responded to the rational appeals while at the same time guiding and shaping the irrational calls,” Prof Li said, referring to the early stages of the debate before the two massive protests. “It needs to seek support from the majority in society during the bargaining process and avoid the blast of irrational emotions.”

Prof Li believed the government should launch a full review of its governance and communication mechanism with the public, especially its online media strategies.

In an email to staff and students of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, its president Wei Shyy condemned the violence, but also called on society to discuss what was at the root of the incidents, which he described as “distressing and heartbreaking”.

“Observing how things unfolded over the past few weeks, the situation can’t be interpreted just as a sign of temporary or single topic discontent. We need to acknowledge that the protesters, many of them youngsters and students, would want to commit such acts even though they are fully aware of the consequences,” he wrote.

“While there are possible actions to be pursued by the legal system as well as judgment being rendered by society, we should discuss the cause to address the challenges we face.”

He called on parties to forge a conversation with an open and approachable attitude and warned that “repeating identical statements or persistent confrontation” will only bring more division. SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST

Related topics

Hong Kong protest Carrie Lam Hong Kong extradition bill

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