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Letter To Editor: Protest Over Protesters

5B Mandy Shum Lok Yee

Dear Editor,
I am writing in response to the article ‘Protest
Over Protesters’ published on October 14. I
believe that – mass demonstration is the most
effective way for us to raise our concerns about
social affairs and to voice our opinions.
We all know that our government always
ignores public opinion. They usually ask for
suggestions from the general public and then
entirely ignore them. It is aggravating for our
government to adopt a wait-and-see approach
all the time. They do something without public interest in mind and when things go
wrong, they do not do anything to improve the situation. Therefore, people start
thinking that a more radical approach is needed to express their opinion.
The government may be forced to listen to the people if our voice is strong
enough. Public pressure can be a tool to make the government do something
for public benefit. For example, the massive protest on July 1, 2003 forced the
government to put the legislation of Article 23 of the Basic Law on hold. The protest
against national education a few years ago also forced the government to stop
introducing the curriculum in schools. The failure in communication between the
government and the public has made having a proper conversation impossible.
Meanwhile, the problem of parallel trading has become more serious and
developed into another concern of local citizens. Many Hong Kong people hate
the parallel traders from the mainland since Sheung Shui is always packed with
those traders. It has become
a problem for the residents
but the government failed to
do anything. This is why some
people took matters in their
own hands and expelled those
traders out of their district,

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