The Equal Opportunities Commission submitted a document to the Legislative Council (LegCo) the other day, suggesting the commission be empowered to take action against those “discriminating” mainlanders. On the other front, it is said the Security Bureau is deliberating on tabling “offense to police officers”, planning to enact a new law to ban citizens from insulting the police, as well as prohibiting them from affronting all civil servants.

By common sense, the aforementioned legislation is to be pushed through by the government that is entitled to public power to ban citizens from engaging in the behavior the government does not acknowledge and no current law interdicts. Citizens “discriminate” mainlanders? Draw up a law to prohibit them from “discriminating” mainlanders. The citizens “offend” civil servants? Legislate against them “offending” civil servants. A similar government decree was seen as early as the implementation of the ban on investigation into vehicle registration. Seeing citizens disclose police officers’ information, the government applied for an injunction to forbid anyone to lay bare police officers’ information.

The following legend is handed down from generation to generation. Xia Gun, who was commissioned by Emperor Yao to do flood-control work, tried to block and intercept freshet by building embankments. Eventually, not only did he fail to get rid of flood disasters, but also raised the water level. Authorized by Emperor Shun to prevent floods from hitting, his son Xia Yu channeled the water by ditching. The approach adopted by Xia Yu turned aside flooding, and navigated the water everywhere to irrigate crops.

Public grievances are like water in the river while embankments are akin to laws. Flooding is an outcome, like public grievances that are ascribed to government’s administration not tallying with what the masses expected. Embankments are stopgaps for temporarily hindering floodwaters, but not channeling public grievances. If a government tactfully copes with public grievances and finds out their root cause, it will win over citizens’ trust as well as boosting its prestige and public reliance. Citizens offended mainlanders, mainly because the “self-guided tours” policy launched by the government impaired people’s livelihood so that there were conflicts between mainlanders and Hong Kong residents; there were squabbles between citizens and civil servants, because the latter did not perform well, failing to service the former appropriately; citizens made public police officers’ information because the police officers concerned did not pass muster. From the “self-guided tours” policy spoiling people’s livelihood to civil servants failing to do their jobs, they really boil down to the poor administration by the government. To effect a permanent cure is essential. Now that the public grievances have erupted with citizens engaging in the behavior the government does not look favorably upon, the latter, however, has gone so far as not to improve its administration, but rather legislate against citizens’ behavior which is attributed to its the poor administration. Like Xia Gun blocking and intercepting freshet by building embankments, this will in the end give rise to an eruption of public grievances.

Since the Handover in 1997, the political environment in Hong Kong had been stable, mainly because the SAR government used to concede whenever there was an eruption of public grievances. Whenever citizens at large opposed contentious bills such as the legislation for Article 23 of the Basic Law and the launch of national education, the government was able to withdraw the motions concerned, channeling public grievances so that citizens’ faith in the system remained unscathed. Yet, since the anti-extradition movement, citizens have seen clearly the structural deficiencies of the current system. The only way for the government to win over citizens’ trust again is to closely follow public opinion, pushing through policies that conform with it and improve people’s livelihood so that public grievances are gradually channeled one step at a time. If Xia Gun’s approach is employed at every turn, public grievances cannot be navigated away.

An eruption of public grievances, which can be likened to freshets roaring down the mountains, can occur without any prior warning. The anti-extradition movement is one of the good examples. Before the outbreak of the movement, the pro-China camp nabbed two seats in two by-elections for the Kowloon West constituency from the pro-democracy camp; bills queried by the pro-democracy camp such as the co-location arrangement of the Hong Kong Section of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link and even the amendment to the rules of procedure of the LegCo passed without a hitch; the numbers of participants in demonstrations held by the pro-democracy camp reached record lows on end. Nonetheless, during the time the government was forcing through the extradition amendment bill, no one from the government, the pro-China and pro-democracy camp had expected the anti-extradition movement would break out. If the government still continues in its own way, believes that building embankments high as walls is the way to prevent public grievances from breaking out, makes light of public opinion, does not improve its administration, and keeps curbing on citizens’ freedoms, it is just a matter of time before public grievances erupt again.

(Yeung Man-chun, independent writer)

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