The mammoth marches that
involved an estimated 2 million people have inspired a range of views from the
region’s citizens and direct action veterans
Some are in favour, and see
hope in Hongkongers’ audacity – while others run the gamut from shrill
condemnation to ambivalence
Published: 11:00am, 22 Jun,
2019
Even for the likes of
Malaysia’s Hishamuddin Rais, a veteran leader of the country’s pro-democracy
Bersih marches that repeatedly brought Kuala Lumpur to a standstill in recent
years, Hong Kong’s mammoth anti-extradition protests over the past fortnight
have been a sight to behold.
“I mean, I was just so happy
to see the young people. So many of them, so capable, and so clear in what they
want. Us ‘grandaddies’ and ‘grandmummies’ of street politics can only observe
and learn from the Hong Kong youth,” Hishamuddin, a firebrand civil activist
for the last five decades, told This Week in Asia.
Like the self-styled Malaysian
rabble-rouser, admiration – even envy – was the prevailing feeling among the
citizens, civil activists and political observers of Hong Kong’s closest
neighbours as they witnessed the city take to the streets in unprecedented
fashion to oppose the politically charged extradition bill
mooted by the government of Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng
Yuet-ngor.
The likes of the Philippines – the
Southeast Asian nation nearest to Hong Kong – and
South Korea have a
long tradition of street protests. But even there, the Hong Kong protesters’
audacity, in particular their open defiance of the city’s ultimate political
masters in Beijing, has gained them widespread praise.
Social media users from across
the region also commended the protesters’ civil behaviour after they cleaned up
after the marches, and on several instances let ambulances pass through streets
flooded with people.
However, the adulation was not
uniform across the region.
In Singapore – seen by many
as Hong Kong’s sister city – where protests are rare due to tough rules
governing freedom of assembly, one well-known establishment figure scoffed at
the protesters for having “lost all sense of reality”.
Retired top diplomat Bilahari
Kausikan suggested Beijing might need to get involved to quell the street
protests.
Civil activists who had led
protests in the Lion City, meanwhile, said people in the city state were
unlikely to come out in the same manner as Hongkongers because they had been
“conditioned” to be apprehensive of direct action.
Large-scale protests are expected
to continue in Hong Kong this weekend after the city’s government failed to
respond to demands to scrap the extradition bill, which would for the first
time have allowed suspects in the semi-autonomous city to be extradited to
mainland China.
Still, there has been some
immediate impact, with Chief Executive Lam issuing a rare apology for attempting
to push through the bill, which she has now vowed to indefinitely suspend.
However, the embattled leader
continues to enjoy Beijing’s backing.
On Monday, Chinese foreign
ministry spokesman Lu Kang said Lam’s resignation – a key demand of protesters
– was out of the question.
The Beijing unit overseeing
the city’s affairs, the Hong Kong and Macau office, meanwhile has said it
respected Lam’s climbdown on the extradition bill, and expressed support for
the police force’s efforts to maintain law and order.
Chinese officials have
expressed deep displeasure over foreign governments’ open support for the
protests, which they view as outside interference in a domestic matter.
Tam Yiu-chung, Hong Kong’s
only representative to the Standing Committee of the National People’s
Congress, quoted officials after a meeting this week with liaison office
director Wang Zhimin as saying that foreign powers had issued at least 67
statements to “interfere” with events in Hong Kong.
STRENGTH IN NUMBERS
Nonetheless, in the
Philippines, some citizens are wondering if they can employ direct action to
extract climbdowns from an increasingly assertive China.
In the latest brush-up between
the two countries, a Chinese vessel sunk a Philippine fishing boat on June 9 –
the same day Hongkongers staged the first of their massive protests.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has
sought to play down the incident, at one point decrying “stupid politicians”
for hyping up what was “just a collision”.
Critics have slammed that
stance as yet another instance of his kowtowing before Chinese aggression.
Duterte in the past maintained that he was taking a pragmatic approach with
Beijing because the Philippines could not afford to go to war with the Asian
power.
Gideon Lasco, a local academic
and columnist, said Hong Kong’s resistance against the extradition bill offered
a fresh perspective on the matter.
“[The Hong Kong protests] can
inspire Filipinos to realise that military might is not the only ‘power’ we
have. There is strength in numbers,” he said. “There is strength in simply
being on the moral high ground, and having other people – or nations – behind
you.”
Such clarion calls by Lasco
and other Filipinos seem to be gaining traction.
In a viral tweet last week,
Lasco said: “Incident after incident, it is very clear that Chinese forces are
harassing our people, grabbing our islands, and destroying our reefs in the
West Philippine Sea. If the citizens of Hong Kong and the government of Vietnam
can stand up to China, so can we and so should our government.”
Incident after incident, it is
very clear that Chinese forces are harassing our people, grabbing our islands,
and destroying our reefs in the West Philippine Sea.
If the citizens of Hong Kong and the gov’t of Vietnam can stand up to China, so can we and so should our government.
If the citizens of Hong Kong and the gov’t of Vietnam can stand up to China, so can we and so should our government.
Jianne Soriano, who was born
and raised in Hong Kong, echoed the sentiment.
Said the 23-year-old: “As a
Filipino-Hongkonger, I feel stuck on both sides with a common thread which is
China. I agree that what’s going on in Hong Kong is about the extradition bill,
but also think that the message they are sending to others outside Hong Kong is
that they can stand up to a superpower – which is exactly what the Filipino
people and even the Filipino government should do.”
In South Korea, where
demonstrations have been ubiquitous since democratisation from military rule in
the 1980s, social media users expressed similar resonance with the Hong Kong
protesters’ struggle.
Many took to social media to
suggest the anti-extradition protests were similar to the demonstrations in
late 2016 and early 2017 that eventually forced the impeachment of President
Park Geun-hye.
Referring to Lam’s apology on
Tuesday, one Twitter user likened her address to similar public mea culpas by
former presidents Lee Myung-bak and Park, both of whom are serving jail time
for corruption. Some have signed online petitions calling for current President
Moon Jae-in to weigh in and support the Hong Kong protesters.
Moon has maintained silence so
far – expectedly, considering the impact any statement could have on ties with
Beijing.
US-based South Korean
political blogger Jumin Lee said the supportive response towards the Hong Kong
protests on social media showed the country’s citizens “feel like what happened
to them is happening to Hong Kong as well.”
SINGAPORE, WHY NO LOVE FOR
HONG KONG?
In Singapore, while many
lauded the civic-minded behaviour of protesters, few seemed to support their
cause outright.
Former ambassador Bilahari’s
shrill condemnation of the demonstrations on social media garnered strong
support from his followers.
“These HK people have lost all
sense of reality. At some point [Chinese President Xi Jinping] must act if this
continues,” the former diplomat wrote on Facebook on Monday, after the
demonstration on June 16 in which organisers said a record-breaking 2 million
people took part.
“I am sure he would prefer to
deal with HK after relations with the US stabilise, and that is not going to
happen any time soon,” Bilahari said. “The HK people are probably banking on
just that.”
Asked by This Week in
Asia about the Hong Kong demonstrations on the sidelines of an
interreligious harmony conference in the city state this week, a handful of
civil servants, local researchers and company executives almost unanimously
expressed ambivalence over the demonstrations.
Office workers in the central
business district also expressed limited support for the Hong Kong protests.
“That is their culture. I
think in Singapore, even if the government allows it, people won’t gather like
that. There are other ways [to express dissent] … to make your anger known,”
said sales executive Paul Sim.
Gilbert Goh, a prolific
organiser of small-scale protests in the city state’s sole free-speech park,
said he was unsurprised by the lack of support for the protests among his
compatriots. “I think the [ruling People’s Action Party (PAP)] has done a good
job. They say ‘You come out against us, there will be repercussions’ … so
people are conditioned not to go against the authorities.”
Goh was the organiser of a
series of protests between 2013 and 2015 over a controversial government white
paper that suggested the country’s population could swell to 6.9 million people
in two decades. The government later dialed back the significance of the
projection, suggesting instead that its expected population figure in 2030 was
much lower.
The first of Goh’s
anti-immigration protests garnered some 5,000 people, widely viewed as the
largest demonstration since Singapore’s independence in 1965.
Under the rule of the PAP, in
power since 1959, protests are rare because of tough rules governing street
demonstrations. They are not banned, but require police permits – which have
not been issued for political demonstrations for decades.
Last year, artist Seelan Palay
served a jail term in lieu of a fine after he was convicted of being “part of a
public procession without a permit”.
His solo protest, in memory of
one of the country’s late political detainees, involved performance art in
which he walked to three different locations holding a mirror. At one point he
stood in front of parliament holding the mirror.
Palay’s case has been cited by
civil activists to demonstrate what they claim are draconian restrictions on
free assembly. Said Goh: “It comes down to culture. Hong Kong, they have a kind
of British culture, they believe in protests. Here we are very Confucian,
obeying authority. It takes a lot of stirring of sentiment and patriotism to
get people to come out.”
Roy Ngerng, a government
critic successfully sued for defamation by Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien
Loong, blamed PAP “propaganda” for locals’ harsh view towards protests.
“There is propaganda that
protests will harm stability … but even [founding father] Lee Kuan Yew was
involved in protests in the 1950s. Demonstrations were normal in the 1960s
until dissent was stifled through laws enacted by the PAP,” said the political
blogger, who now lives in Taiwan.
Ngerng’s open support for the
Hong Kong protests has been one of the talking points on social media in
Singapore this week. A main cause for the chatter was a picture showing him
holding a banner at a Taipei rally last Sunday that said “Don’t let Hong Kong
be like Singapore where people live in fear”.
PEOPLE POWER
Back in the Philippines, where the
so-called People Power Revolution was staged to topple dictator Ferdinand
Marcos in 1986, some say there are salutary lessons for Hong Kong from their
country’s experience with direct action.
A second bout of
demonstrations, dubbed “People Power 2”, toppled Joseph Estrada as president in
2001. Estrada was imprisoned for plunder but was subsequently released and
served for a period as mayor of Manila.
Political scientist Maria Ela
Atienza of the University of the Philippines Diliman suggested the country was
suffering a “people power fatigue” because of a lack of progress arising from
the two major social movements.
On issues like the South China Sea dispute,
she said it was unlikely metropolitan Filipinos would take to the streets like
their Hong Kong counterparts, given that the impact of Chinese assertions in
the waters so far affected only fishermen from far-flung regions.
Hong Kong’s latest protests
were “laudable” in that they managed to galvanise a “united front” of students,
professionals, the religious sector, and even mothers, the professor said.
There was a cautionary tale
from Thailand too, where demonstrators in the late 2000s and early 2010s railed
against the country’s royal-urban elite for throttling elected governments
backed by rural folk.
Protests were proscribed after
a coup in 2014, and restrictions are expected to be kept in place despite the
return of nominal democracy following elections in March.
Prominent pro-democracy
columnist Pravit Rojanaphruk in a commentary this week said young people in his
country were reticent to take to the streets after having borne witness to how
“reckless and irresponsible protest leaders on both sides” put people in harm’s
way during erstwhile clashes.
“While rights to demonstration
are fundamental to a democratic society, as seen in Hong Kong this week, Thais
now seem keen to see other avenues for political action used up first,” Pravit
wrote. “Massive street protests will only return to Bangkok when all other
channels for political action have been exhausted.”
Hishamuddin, the Malaysian
veteran activist, said what he witnessed on television screens beaming live
images of the Hong Kong protests reinforced time-tested fundamentals of direct
action.
“In Hong Kong, they are
defending their democratic life – a core part of their identity. In Malaysia,
we were fighting for free and fair elections,” Hishamuddin said. “Whatever it
is, when you go out on the streets, you must have a clear key objective that
strikes at the heart of Mr and Mrs Ordinary.
“We are seeing that in Hong
Kong today … the young people know what they want. There may be difference in
opinion on tactics, the struggle between [hardline and compromise] methods. But
what is clear is that this trend of street protests is not going anywhere in
Asia. We will not see the last of it, in Hong Kong or elsewhere.”
Additional reporting by Crystal
Tai
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