Letters | Singapore feels for Hong Kong protesters, but won’t support violence: harmony and stability are core values

The extradition bill has unleashed the unhappiness over issues such as housing and jobs that date back to the colonial era – domestic matters that Singaporeans respect as Hong Kong’s own business

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Speakers’ Corner, Singapore’s free speech area where the people may demonstrate and air their grievances. Singaporeans place a bigger premium on social harmony and tolerance. Photo: Roy Issa

Published: 8:00am, 14 Jul 2019Updated: 8:00am, 14 Jul 2019

I refer to “Singaporeans support Hong Kong protests against extradition bill” (July 9). I want to put the facts in the right perspective and emphasise that the survey cited does not represent the majority of Singapore. It is just a random survey of a minority who may not be fully aware of the facts and different historical backgrounds of Hong Kong and Singapore, although both are former British colonies.

Yes, Singaporeans do sympathise with the Hong Kong protesters for their beliefs, but definitely do not support their senseless and lawless violent actions.

To put it simply: what is there to be afraid of, if the Hong Kong people live within the rule of law (freedom of speech and movement) and do not commit crimes? One can see that the protesters’ demand for the withdrawal of the extradition bill is only an excuse to vent their unhappiness over the problems of housing, jobs, and other social needs. These problems are pressing issues deeply rooted in history since China ceded Hong Kong to Britain.

Can the protesters and the rest of Hong Kong honestly ask themselves what their former colonial rulers had done for them during the 150 years before handing the city back to China in 1997?

Other than tall buildings, luxurious flats, well-developed financial services, and so on, did the British solve the problems and social needs of Hong Kong residents? The first time I visited Hong Kong was before the handover, and I saw people living in tiny sheds or wooden huts. There were also instances of social unrest then.

Why did the protesters and other residents not fight the British and demand their rights and social needs then? Although the present Hong Kong government is partly to blame for the protests and unrest, the protesters, their parents, and ancestors should first take the blame and responsibility for their predicament. Blame the British colonial rulers for their selfish rule of law for their benefit, and former governor Chris Patten and his deputy Anson Chan Fang On-sang, for the mess they left behind.