Michael Edesess

Opinion | If Hong Kong protesters have a dream, they need their own Martin Luther King to realise it

A strong moral leader will have the authority to negotiate with the government, whereas a leaderless movement refusing to cede an inch risks sending each protester on the road to pointless martyrdom

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Scuffles break out as Hong Kong riot police fire tear gas at extradition bill protesters marching towards the central government’s liaison office, in Sai Ying Pun on July 28. Photo: Edmond So

Michael Edesess

Published: 9:00am, 31 Jul 2019Updated: 9:05am, 31 Jul 2019

Hong Kong’s protesters take pride in being leaderless. This is a very serious mistake. Without a strong leader who can not only embody their moral force, but negotiate and compromise as necessary on their behalf, they will be consigned to the status of martyrs or abject failures.

There is a belief among the young these days that being leaderless is an admirable quality in a protest movement. This originated with the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York, if not earlier. But that movement had no clear objectives and utterly failed.

If they do not have a seasoned leader who can embody their moral claims – and also apply those moral claims diligently to the protesters themselves – then they will have no practical means of gaining ground on their adversaries. They will have to content themselves with moral righteousness absent of real-world achievements, much as terrorists do on behalf of their perceived superior religious morality.

To understand the benefits of having a strong leader, protesters should see the movie Selma, about Martin Luther King’s leadership of the US civil rights movement protests in Selma, Alabama, in 1965. King stood strong for the rights of black citizens of the South, but he stood equally strong against violence on the part of anyone involved in his movement – even as a reaction to violence from the opposition.

As a result of his staunch moral leadership, he was able to negotiate directly with then US president Lyndon B. Johnson, pushing to get strong and effective civil rights legislation enacted.

Hong Kong’s protesters, in contrast, seem to want to reject negotiations under any realistic terms. Furthermore, they are unable to contain – or even effectively sanction – their worst and most violent elements. They would appear to have a fantasy that by refusing to give an inch, and even by allowing themselves to appear increasingly threatening, they will break resistance from the mainland and Hong Kong leadership, and gain approval of any and all their demands.