Hong Kong must come together for its own good, or risk Beijing's wrath
C. P. Ho says Hongkongers must put their differences aside, and engage in realistic and open dialogue for their own good. The alternative is to risk Beijing's wrath
Hong Kong people must face reality and remember their history. If they do not, they will have to contend with issues beyond their ken and reach.
The result can be a Hong Kong so different from the place we know and love today. Going now into three weeks of protests and counter protests is more than many can bear in terms of inconveniences and uncertainties. And a house divided cannot stand.
Fortunately for all, the protests have been the most civilised in the world. Protesters raise their hands to show their non-violent intentions. Police line up in drill formations. Protesters and anti-protesters trade insults and slogans. Were it not that the stakes are so high, all such confrontations would make for very good, entertaining theatre.
Unfortunately for some in both the anti- and pro-government camps, the stresses and strains in shoving and shouting are taking a heavy toll, mentally and physically. A little blood has now been shed and Asia’s finest, the Hong Kong police, stand accused of using unnecessarily high-handed tactics firing tear gas canisters to disperse crowds at the start of the protests and, more recently of brutality, with claims of them beating up and kicking a handcuffed protester on the ground.
On the surface, the one burning and divisive issue is universal suffrage, involving methods for the selection of the chief executive in 2017 and the formation of the Legislative Council in 2016.
However, below the surface is the fact that Hong Kong people are divided among themselves into two camps: the realists and the idealists. Put in another way, they are the doers and the dreamers.