Quora Answer: Why Do Singaporeans Not Back Hong Kong Protests?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Why do Singaporeans not back Hong Kong protests?”

The situation in Hong Kong is no longer protests, but civil disturbance, rioting, and borderline insurrection.  Protesters have vandalised infrastructure, affected the livelihood of fellow citizens, and attacked those who have disagreed with them, leading to one confirmed fatality.

Of the five demands, only one could be considered reasonable: the withdrawal of the extradition bill.  Even that, is debatable because the bill was a reasonable response to criminals going across the border to escape justice.

The demand for an independent probe against police brutality was never going to pass.  This would demoralise the police.  It can be argued that their response is restrained, considering the violence.  We are talking about hooligans manufacturing weapons, and using violence against others, police and civilians.

The demand for amnesty for arrested protesters was reasonable when the protests were peaceful.  That ship has sailed, and rioters should be jailed.  Some of these people are culpable for assault with a deadly weapon, for aggravated violence, vandalism, and even attempted murder.  There should be no amnesty for criminals.

The demand to halt to categorising the protests as riots is also incredulous.  These people have moved well past riots, into insurrection against the state.  They have waved the flag of foreign nations, and called for their intervention.  That is clear sedition.

Finally, the demand for the implementation of universal suffrage is, on the surface, reasonable.  But using it as a prelude to calling for independence means it would never be entertained in such a climate.

In East Asian society, for there to be successful negotiations, the parties involved must not be humiliated, “lose face” as it is known.  The actions of the rioters are meant to humiliate the state, and they cannot win.  These foolish young people have not considered carefully, what they want, and the pathway to achieve it.  They are behaving like spoilt children, throwing a tantrum.  Destroying their own city is cutting their own nose to spite their face.  Whilst there are grievances, and protests are understandable, the manner in which the protest leaders have conducted themselves have all but ensured that they were never going to succeed.

From a Singapore perspective, we are pragmatic people, and we value order.  It is inconceivable, for us, to vandalise our own infrastructure, and attack fellow Singaporeans violently for disagreeing.  It is especially scandalous to ask a foreign nation to intervene.  We fought for our independence, from the fires of World War II, to the Communist insurgency, to the Konfrontasi, to the legislative battles with the British colonial government.  It is a desecration of the sacrifices of our forefathers to then invite the British back, or call for American intervention.  Wherever the US has intervened, it has left “fire, and blood, and anguish”, as John Boynton Priestley wrote, in his “An Inspector Calls”.

China does not need to intervene.  Eventually, enough people from Hong Kong will be turned against these people, and it will come to a bloody end.  China comes out looking good.  It gets to tell the people of the Mainland that Communist rule brings order, and prosperity; and this experiment with two systems clearly demonstrates that people trusted with democracy invite chaos, and foreign intervention.  Trade will be diverted to the other cities in the Pearl River Delta, funds will run to Shanghai and Singapore, and Hong Kong will decline.  Its time is past.