Chief Executive Carrie Lam is considering ‘martial law’-type emergency regulations that would allow her to ban public gatherings – according to Apple Daily.
Reasons to believe something like this is possible… It would explain the HK Police kettling, shopping-mall rampaging and other tactics, which (if not due to incompetence) seem designed to create maximum high-visibility mayhem, of the sort that conveniently justifies tougher action. And this would be in line with a semi-stealthy assumption of power by Beijing’s Liaison Office, which no doubt sees the crushing and silencing of opposition as the only possible course.
Reasons to be skeptical… In practical terms, authorities would have to impose curfews or other restrictions onto at least neighbourhood-size areas, which would alienate whole communities of people wanting to go about their usual rushing around from 7-Eleven to the noodle shop to tutorials to basketball or dog-walking, mall-strolling or other lawful activities. (More to the point, it could stop people from getting to work horror!!!) It would also invite international attention and condemnation at a time when Beijing faces enough trade-war, Taiwan-election and other headaches. (Thought: did Beijing refuse to let Carrie resign because they feared she would sign up as Tsai Ing-wen’s campaign manager?)
Ultimately, it’s a question of whose taste for panic-stirring melodrama is greater – Apple Daily’s, or the Communist Party apparatchiks micro-managing the struggle against counter-revolutionary forces? On balance, I would guess Apple ‘paywall’ Daily. For now.
Reasons to be skeptical continued.
The police are instructed not to issue their customary ‘no objection’ to a forthcoming march. Numbers swell to 16 June proportions.
China will play its usual long game and wait for protester fatigue to set in. Lam to be gone by next summer and Khun Bernard to wheeled out more often to make cooing and soothing noises to the masses.
We really give the HKCCPSAR government way too much credit
The place seeking reactionaries in the DAB and the brain dead Liaison Office demand suppression. The rank and file of the HKP override the weak leadership in their wish to become the Janjaweed. Carrie Lam and gang have no ideas except to continue the crony capitalism eating at the heart of the economy and people’s livelihood. What a perfect recipe to guarantee full blown insurrection and international sanctions against China AND HK…..
They could always schedule a protest at the same time as the race meeting in Shatin.
Combine the two !
@Paul – unfortunately it’s the off-season. Wait 6 weeks…
Can I request a deep profile of Alex Lo? That guy has become absolutely hysterical about these protests, or what he imagines they are about anyway. He is now calling on the government to just let the youth riot! I don’t think he even knows why the protestors feel put upon?
Jockey Club, now that should be a genuine focus of righteous citizens.
JC is at the heart of HK cronyism and its ‘largesse’ secures the perhaps more silence rather than support of many charity and athletic groups who depend on its handouts.
Whenever JC wants to take over sites originally designated for community use to house more nags belonging to tycoons pressure is put on NGOs to forward glowing reports of the JC operation. Last year it was permanently handed the large site it had originally been granted on a temporary basis to house the Olympic Equestrian Events in 2008. This was supposed to revert to the sports community.
At the same time an open space across the river beside Kitchee grounds that should be developed into recreational facilities was rezoned to residential to ‘address the housing shortage’. Many Sha Tin DCs and residents objected that recreation is also an essential land use, but then they do not have the clout of JC. No wonder they were all out on the streets at the weekend.
All this crap abut JC funding charities, whack its monopoly and bring in the international bookies and a reasonable tax and the community would probably be even better off, especially as these bookies would not be obliged to fund white elephant projects or facilities that the government does not want to go through Legco for funding.
It has always amazed me that with so many animal lovers in the community there was no outcry when racing was extended into hot humid July. Cruelty to animals indeed.
Funny thing about Alex Lo is that despite living in Canada for so many years he still has no idea what a riot really is.