THE Caribbean and the wider world have seen enough of what’s been happening in Hong Kong these days for people anywhere and everywhere to come to a conclusion about whether the protests are fights for democracy or demonstrations of anarchy.
The reasons and demands of the protest organizers and spokespersons virtually change by the week, as they shift goalposts and chart ever-new paths to spread chaos, violence and destruction.
With every sign of clear external backing, well-equipped and masked persons, in the name of protesting, openly attack police officers for the benefit of throngs of press photographers that most times outnumber those being photographed.
Hong Kong Police residential quarters have also been seen being attacked and stoned by mobs digging bricks off sidewalks, police stations and other security locations also attacked by disorderly gangs and parts of the city’s vital public transport hubs targeted and put under selective siege before the anarchy was moved to the Hong Kong airport, this time aiming at the very heart of the economy of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR).
The anarchy in Hong Kong city is a virtual carbon copy of similar actions in France, where extreme elements associated with the ‘Gillets Jaunes’ protests have been roundly condemned for their wanton destruction and violent stand-offs with the police, leading to eventual deployment of the French army on the streets.
But, in the name of ‘Fighting for Democracy’ and sole pursuit of anti-China agendas, similar anarchy is being encouraged, promoted and defended by those leaders who would not tolerate such behaviour at home, while the real legal defenders of law and order in Hong Kong are openly attacked by masked mobs.
The likes of the USA, UK, Canada and the European Union (EU) have thrown the principle of non-interference and non-intervention in the internal affairs of states completely out of the window in Hong Kong.
Ever since the process of decolonization began in the SAR in 1997 with the agreement of Britain, the external interference aimed at delaying the transition through ‘One Country, Two Systems’ has continued unabated. Countries opposed to or jealous of China’s growth and expansion on the world stage have since been taking every opportunity to hinder the pace of Hong Kong’s peaceful and orderly progress in the new transitional dispensation.
These major nations continue to refuse to accept the One China policy and take every opportunity to sow confusion and division by stoking anti-China actions wherever and whenever opportunities arise.
The anarchy they promote in Hong Kong will not be tolerated in the capitals of the nations whose leaders most loudly encourage and support it. But since it’s all against China, they openly support the public displays of violence, destruction and provocation.
The clear aim is to drive Hong Kong to a state of being ungovernable and hopefully encourage – almost to invite – the authorities to execute an expected firm response that will provide a basis to again change the narrative and widen the scope of criticism of both the SAR authorities and Beijing.
The violent and destructive images portrayed from each day of protest coverage do not attract a single word of criticism from those whose only concern is to continue to promote instability in China.
Masked mobs are shown by the world’s press attacking guardians of the law who are also ordinary citizens, attacking their homes and endangering their families, while individuals are picked-on for violent attacks because they are suspected to be ‘from the Mainland’ – as if Chinese have no place in Hong Kong.
Such anarchy cannot and should not be tolerated anywhere, as it always easily leads to unnecessary and avoidable loss of limbs – and even lives.
The authorities have been wisely patient and largely tolerant, consistently urging the anarchists and their external backers to back-off from pushing the Hong Kong SAR to the brink. But this is hardly likely in a situation where the protests have gone way beyond the boundaries of the acceptable or tolerable.
Police officers are guardians of the law everywhere and when violently attacked while guarding the peace should be expected to defend themselves – except in Hong Kong, it would seem, where criticism of perpetrators of violence and destruction doesn’t fit the narrative of those promoting such unacceptable and unjustifiable behaviour. Instead, the new theme is to accuse the Hong Kong police of ‘using excessive force’.
None of the leaders of the so-called ‘Western Democracies’ promoting anarchy in Hong Kong today will allow hooligan protesters to storm the national parliament or paralyze the nation’s busiest international airport. Such actions would most likely be considered ‘a threat to national security’. But in China’s case, it’s being hypocritically sold as acceptable forms of civil protest.
Forces unable and unwilling to convince people to support their cause always employ other means of getting their messages across.
The ‘colour revolutions’ that comprised the ‘Arab Spring’ were all generated and driven, in great part, by near-invisible external forces in other capitals with ultimate regime change objectives – and Hong Kong’s ‘umbrella movement’ can fit tightly into that mold.
They are being made to look like rainbow coalitions for democratic change, but in all cases they each saw occasions of national protests visibly hijacked by external forces with clear strategic political objectives in mind, stretching far beyond the original demands of the protesters.
Left to the organizers, their external backers and those promoting and defending their anarchy in Hong Kong through the international press, Mob Rule will ultimately prevail in the SAR. That will definitely not happen — but those fanning the flames of dissent and disorder will neither give-up on inventing new causes for chaos.
It is to be expected that the authorities will eventually take clear measures to prevent success of the clear ongoing efforts to escalate the violence and anarchy in Hong Kong.
What ought not to be expected is that anarchy would be normalized and made ‘politically correct’ only because it fits the overall agenda of continuing to find ways and means of creating instability in China.
The Caribbean, where Police Forces are still respected and treated as the ultimate guardians of law and order on the streets, is surely watching — and hopefully close enough to see the crystal clear difference between democracy and anarchy.
They’re definitely not the same and the Caribbean must be very careful about being drawn into supporting one in the name of the other. The two aren’t the same – and no country in this region should have to wait to prove or find out.
Regional governments should simply call-out those promoting anarchy in other countries.
But if they are afraid, they should resist invitations to take wrong stances and just accept and be guided by the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of other nations — and simply stay out of China’s internal affairs in Hong Kong.
It’s just not our business!