PUBLISHED : Monday, 06 October, 2014 SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST Its never too late to start talking Longer term, Hong Kongs success will depend on it being a democratic city with more freedom GEORGE CHEN george.chen@scmp Im struggling to imagine what could happen next in Hong Kong and what the worst case scenario could be over the next few days. The more I think about it, the more Im confused. Too many events have happened very rapidly in the past few days. Many simply went beyond common sense. Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, languishing at record low support ratings in various public polls, can still pretend hes all right, with Beijing even praising him for his satisfactory work so far in a hardline editorial in the Communist Party mouthpiece the Peoples Daily. When our courts ruled there was no legitimate reason for the police to detain pro-democracy student leader Joshua Wong indefinitely and eventually forced the police to release him, no one from the police had one word of apology to Wong for detaining him unlawfully for longer than necessary. A day after Occupy Central protesters, sitting peacefully in the streets, were attacked by triads in Mong Kok, a local Chinese-language newspaper praised the angry residents who had at last decided to fight to clear the roads with their blood in their own way. How shameless! Many feel such negotiations, with such weak mutual trust, would likely go nowhere On the one hand, the government said the priority for all parties involved in the worst political crisis in Hong Kong since the handover should be to sit down peacefully for negotiations rather than blame one another. On the other, Financial Secretary John Tsang blamed the Occupy Central movement for damaging the economy. In the long run, what can make Hong Kong a uniquely successful marketplace, compared with the rest of China or even the world? A democratic city with more freedom, so businessmen and investors feel more confident when taking business parties or even the government to court to face accountability when necessary? Or simply a yes sir society where everything the government says is right? When the student leaders decided to launch negotiations with Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor after the deadline for their demand for Leung to step down passed, I saw a ray of hope. But my hope faded quickly after mainland state media, particularly the Peoples Daily, began to join the blame game, torpedoing the chances of an improvement in the weak mutual trust between the protesters and the Hong Kong government. No wonder some protesters questioned whether the government really wanted to negotiate or was just playing for time in order to exhaust them. Now some student leaders are once again asking for negotiations, yet many feel such negotiations, with such weak mutual trust, would most likely go nowhere. But its never too late. Carrie, how difficult would it be to get those students to sit down for a cup of tea? George Chen is the SCMPs financial editor and a Yale World Fellow. The Mr. Shangkong columns appear every Monday. Follow @george_chen on Twitter or visit facebook/mrshangkong
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 03:58:59 +0000
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