Guest Comments by Vandana Marino
LANTAU ISLAND, Hong Kong -- I admired Hong Kong people when they marched by the millions in 1989 to protest against the Beijing Massacre, as I also admired them when they marched by the thousands in 2003 against Article 23, the proposed national-security legislation. But their recent protest march in reaction to the deaths of eight Hong Kong people during a hostage incident in Manila was incomprehensible to me.
Did those people really think their government could not express their anger towards the Philippine government over a botched rescue attempt? Why did the protesters target ordinary Filipinos who come from a country with a history of mismanagement and corruption? Did they feel threatened by the poor people of that unfortunate country, thousands of whom slave for them here in Hong Kong? Are Filipinos really viewed as being on the same level as terrorists?
How much more admirable it would have been if the Hong Kong people who marched on August 29 had asked their servants to join them in the protest, instead of having the Filipinos hold their own separate services of grief and condolence! The fact that such an invitation did not materialize really proves that the class system is alive and well in this so-called “Asian World City”.
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