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Friday, October 18, 2019, 19:57
Young children cruelly used as pawns in riots
By Mark Pinkstone
Friday, October 18, 2019, 19:57 By Mark Pinkstone

They wear the masks of cowardice. If the hundreds of rioters truly believed in their convictions, they would stand up and be counted. But no. They are cowards who run at the approach of marching police and cover their faces, so they won’t be recognized. They are the unknown. But they act like charging bulls when they have a vulnerable single individual, mostly old enough to be their parents, surrounded, ready to rain punches and strikes with steel pipes. Their forlorn victims usually ended up bloodied and prostrated on the ground requiring hospitalization. Such brave champions of human rights and democracy!

Since the anti-mask law came into effect on Oct 5, the police have removed the masks of many. And the results have been horrifying. Behind the masks were young children, 10 to 14-year-olds, who haven’t even reached puberty and dressed from head to toe in black, brandishing sticks to fight the police. The ugly hand of terrorism has reached the young children, oblivious to the real world of death by violence. The indoctrination of these youngsters is reminiscent of the evolution of the Hitler Youth Movement in World War II. The child soldiers of various African warlords come to mind! 

Day-by-day we see lines of young masked school children lining up hand-in-hand in defiance of authority and in support of the rioters. They don’t know any better. They have been brain-washed by their elders that good is bad and bad is good. It is okay, say their elders, to fight the police, make and throw gasoline bombs, smash shops and thoroughly vandalize MTR stations to such an extent that all train services scream to a halt and commuters cannot get to work. All this, they are told, will lead to a better tomorrow. And all this is for a higher cause: “human rights” and “democracy”!  

The ugly hand of terrorism has reached the young children, oblivious to the real world of death by violence. The indoctrination of these youngsters is reminiscent of the evolution of the Hitler Youth Movement in World War II. The child soldiers of various African warlords come to mind

They are young school children who are so naive to believe their older leaders that their “tomorrow” is either death, serious injury or their future ruined by having a criminal record.  Their actions today will haunt them forever especially if these riots continue with serious consequences. The immature adolescent rioters, especially young girls who will one day become mothers, risk having their psyche and moral values twisted beyond repair. Many have already shown a total lack of responsibility, which is obvious by the wanton destruction they leave in their wake.

But who is to blame? It’s not the children for they know not what they’re doing. It is their parents!  What responsible parent would let a young teenager out in the streets in the dead of night dressed in black when the city is under siege by angry youth rioters?  As television newscasts and social media blast 24 hour commentaries of destruction throughout all 18 districts, don’t parents question where their off-spring may be at that hour? Or do they endorse their actions? Whatever the reason, not knowing where their child is at any given hour is a sign of irresponsibility. When police return arrested children to their homes, the parents should be severely reprimanded, if not prosecuted for child neglect. It is the responsibility of every parent to prepare their offspring for their journey in life starting with the basic ethics. If they can’t do that, they shouldn’t have children.

Social and child welfare officers should visit these homes with young people involved in the street violence for follow-up guidance and counseling. Hong Kong is their destiny. Their older youth leaders from the street tell them there is no future and it’s time for change. Rubbish! The future is what you make it. It just doesn’t “appear,” it is the total sum of the cumulative effort of everyone, from street cleaners to corporate managers that make the future. And Hong Kong has been pretty good at that. 

Education is another factor to be taken into account. When away from home, children spend most of their time at school or university, learning the basics of life. When Liberal Studies was made a compulsory subject in the New Senior Secondary Curriculum in 2009, the government had no idea that it would be abused and could lead to the demise of Hong Kong. The intention was good: to promote free thinking among students. But the new curriculum opened the door for others to take advantage of it. It gave teachers, lecturers and professors a platform to propagate their own political views and personal agenda, and nothing about the phenomenal successes of their motherland internally and on the world stage. Already under the influence of US and British politicians, and the US State Department, the tutors lambasted communism and China as a whole, persuading the students to follow the Western path to democracy. They tore the Basic Law apart and pin-pointed the finer details for attack. Tutoring took a new meaning when students did not think for themselves, but to think what their teachers thought. Liberal Studies became a weapon against the establishment. 

Now we have young students in primary and secondary grades masked and holding hands in solidarity to support the destruction of their homeland. If only they knew what they are doing! It is their own future that they are destroying! 

The author is a former chief information officer of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government, media and PR consultant, and veteran journalist.


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