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Hong Kong extradition bill
OpinionComment
Phil C. W. Chan
Paul Serfaty
Phil C. W. ChanandPaul Serfaty

Opinion | Amnesty for Hong Kong extradition bill protesters would heal society and close rifts with mainland China

  • Hong Kong’s guidelines for prosecutors say there are conditions in which prosecution does not serve the public interest
  • Recent acts, in a highly charged atmosphere created by unresponsive government, should fall under those conditions

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Illustration: Craig Stephens
Phil C. W. ChanandPaul Serfaty

The continuing political crisis in Hong Kong has reached, in the words of Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, an impasse.

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The impasse stems principally from the government’s refusal to extend amnesty to arrested protesters whom Lam and the police have deemed rioters (subsequent non-retraction retractions notwithstanding), citing defence of the rule of law. While not acceding to any of the demands of protesters, Lam has pledged to “listen” to the people of Hong Kong more sincerely and engage with young people more proactively through “dialogues”.

The government is merely dissembling. Its “listening” and “dialogues” are pure window dressing rooted in Hong Kong’s political culture – Confucian authoritarianism, by which the old and rich are wise and the young and less well-off immature, uninformed or “spoiled” – and doomed to failure.

For a generally apolitical city where people are expected to make money above all else, Hong Kong is now at breaking point and social cohesion is bursting at the seams. There are underlying causes aplenty, but they can all be traced to a political system in which lawyers, bankers, businesspeople and property magnates have a disproportionate say in government policy. Non-professionals and young people, by contrast, are essentially disenfranchised. Economic factors such as unaffordable housing and the lack, for many, of social mobility are manifestations of an unequal political system in which universal suffrage is absent and pro-government functional constituencies hold sway.

Arresting and prosecuting young people for their protests will only further alienate them. It will do nothing to ameliorate the schisms between Hong Kong society and the Hong Kong and central governments. It is precisely because the acts alleged to have constituted riots were committed for a political purpose, in a highly charged political atmosphere, that the government must consider extending amnesty for them, ideally through legislation.

The government is right to assert the importance of the rule of law. However, amnesty and the rule of law are not mutually exclusive.

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