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Hong Kong protests
OpinionComment
Jerome A. Cohen
Jerome A. Cohen

An independent inquiry is still the only way to end the protests and keep Hong Kong’s story from ending tragically

  • A citizens’ commission of well-known members from across Hong Kong society can provide the needed independent inquiry
  • There is no better option available, and the time left to prevent a deeper tragedy is running out fast

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Illustration: Craig Stephens
Jerome A. Cohen

Were Mark Twain with us, he might say about citizen action to save Hong Kong what he said about the weather: everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything about it.

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To be sure this, like many pithy observations, would be an exaggeration. Months ago, when the current crisis emerged, Hong Kong’s many able and experienced community leaders, as well as the Hong Kong government officials and their Beijing superiors who precipitated the crisis, seemed paralysed. Since then, efforts of various stripes have been made, if only haltingly. Now is the time for decisive action.

There is widespread consensus, both in Hong Kong and abroad, that not much time may be left. The absence of enlightened action has allowed disaster to begin destroying an important human achievement. Irrationality on all sides is superseding wisdom. Sage commentators increasingly despair. Various solutions continue to be mentioned but without detail or evident hope.
Lip service is still frequently given to the desirability of establishing some sort of independent mechanism to investigate extraordinary police misconduct and the extremely violent reaction it has inspired. Such an inquiry could impartially assess many serious allegations and make significant recommendations to remedy the situation and prevent repetition.

In addition, it could conclude with persuasive verdicts about when peaceful protests become “riots” and when, if ever, imprisonment and exclusion from public office may be appropriate for those engaged in non-violent civil disobedience.

Presumably the thoughtful proposal for an independent judicial inquiry published in this newspaper by former Chief Justice Andrew Li Kwok-nang on July 9 could have met this need and still can. Why it has not been adopted remains a mystery to this distant observer.
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