On Second Thought: Is Hong Kong losing its moral compass after the Mong Kok riot?
The rioters, like burglars, shoplifters and vandals, have made bad choices and must be held responsible
More than three weeks after the Mong Kok riot, one of the most frequently asked questions remains: what is the point of putting the blame solely and squarely on the rioters? What is seldom raised is the much more essential question of what is wrong with a society whose members cannot even agree on what has happened after its worst unrest in years, let along bring themselves to condemn those who planned and participated in the event.
This, in a nutshell, is the most urgent problem Hong Kong is facing. Members of a civil, functional society may have grave, even irreconcilable political differences. This, however, does not prevent them from achieving consensus on basic moral principles that enable them to get along and live together peacefully.
These principles include respect for life as well as the rule of law, accepting the legitimacy of other interests and opinions and renouncing violence as a means of political expression. Those who act against these principles are universally chastised, regardless of their political beliefs and motivations.
So when Joseph Welch, chief counsel for the US army while it was under investigation for communist activities by Joseph McCarthy’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, asked the senator on American national television, “Have you no sense of decency?”, it marked the shifting of the tide of public opinion and the beginning of the downfall of the master manipulator as well as his witch-hunt operation.
Sixty-two years later, this is still how we hold our society’s moral fabric in place– by openly and unequivocally condemning all opinions and behaviour that violate our basic moral principles and sense of decency.
A society is made up of diverse interests. That’s why it will always have its share of political differences and its members will never really get everything they want. But they can live with these differences as long as there is a set of standards for moral behaviour they can agree on.