As the news of Hong Kong persistent demise into anarchy, it just shows how easily humans can slip into chaos and lawless-ness. This is a good example how easily a society which has long pride themselves on safety and order can so easily slide into weekly affairs of violence and chaos. Here in Singapore, we also have to be mindful of such a possibility and not take whatever peace we have in here for granted. Civic protests are all good and all but once violence have taken a hold and proven effective. Riots and chaos will start to reign. What had started with good meanings has given way to something more violent and incomprehensible. Truly the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
From the looks of it, the government in Hong Kong has lost all power and control in the city. It is natural for the Mainland to assimilate more of Hong Kong back into China, by removing barriers; it causes an open market to sky rocket and is out of reach of middle and low income groups of society. It made housing even more unattainable for the locals; it robs these groups of society of hope and dreams. I believe that this is a classic case of how government’s decision to open up markets can lead to such catastrophes. Basic needs of any society should only be a public good and not treated as a private good. Open market forces have always shown that the invisible hands of the market can bring great returns for the players but yet also a great loss for them as well. In this case, the welfare loss to society is huge and the rich gains the most from this.
Basic needs are like commitments. Commitments are never meant to be taken with a huge amount of risk. One does not simply use their parent’s retirement funds to gamble. It is the same as in this case. Yes. With an open market, in order to provide the best possible housing as it is profit driven, developers will always strive to do better. However, without control, any good which is limited as land in this case, will only result in the majority of society having less access and the welfare loss growing ever so big.
When basic needs are not met, society tends to be unmotivated, a lack of purpose which will eventually leads to a hopeless future. Similarly to an animal driven to a corner with nowhere else to go, what will it do? Even the most docile animal will retaliate and force it way out. Either one tries and survives or it dies. Survival instincts kick in.
Humans are no exception to the rule. Regardless of whatever morals or values that one holds, when faced with a survival situation, there will be many who will throw such concepts out of the window so to ensure their survival. Granted that there are some who will uphold their principles to the very end but how many are able to do that? Will it be the majority that will still uphold their principles? It is possible but it is never a definite.
Did both the HK and Mainland government thought about these when the barriers are lifted? Even without the barriers being lifted, the issue with an open property market is still there and eventually it will still blow up.
Did the authorities try to rectify the problem by improving public housing? Apparently, under pressure from the private sector, the authorities decided to just ignore the problem and resulted in this ticking time bomb.
If ever one day, Singapore has also chosen to go down a similar path with basic needs being privatized and being risked, we too would also fail as society will thins and eventually break. Whatever talk about democracy or freedom of speech or equality will be thrown out of the window and only in favor of whom can provide us the access to basic needs. It has been proven in history as how Hitler came into power and history tends to repeat themselves in some way or another. If ever that day should come, I will not hesitate to look for alternative places as a backup to secure a future for my family.
What is left for the locals in HK now? Regardless whether they can accept it or not, HK will always be part of China. There is no way for the locals to refute or change that fact. If anything, the authorities will have to hold their hands up and admit their mistakes and start to listen and care more for the greater parts of society. And for the mainland government to truly win the hearts and minds of the HK locals, they will do well with starting to solve the lack of basic needs(which is the bulk of the feelings of protestors) and not see these protests as a rejection of their authority.
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