Hard to Forget, Two Years Later

A woman remembers the events in Prince Edward MTR

 

It has been two years now since the August 31 attacks in the Prince Edward MTR station. But there are no public remembrances with the national security law in place.

There is no space for the public to reflect on the horrific scenes in the MTR carriage when police in military uniforms attacked unarmed commuters with batons.

These indelible images are a reminder of 2019

Instead Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor insists there is no crackdown on civil society groups, and even quibbled with the word "crackdown", saying the government was only ensuring that individuals and groups were not violating the national security law.

When reporters asked her about the legal status of the Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, Lam said the police is only doing law enforcement work.

"We respect civic society. Hong Kong has large numbers of NGOs and think tanks and research agencies who are shouldering their civic responsibility in trying to improve Hong Kong's situation," she replied to the media before the weekly Executive Council meeting.

Lam says there's not crackdown on civic groups

"But where there are associations, whether they are registered or not registered, that exist in order to undermine Hong Kong's security, let alone to advocate independence or collude with external forces to harm Hong Kong and the country, that is not something we should condone."

She was probably also referring to Civil Human Rights Front, that had been around for 32 years, 30 of which it organized the annual Tiananmen Square candlelight vigil, and the 47-year-old Professional Teachers Union is not being recognized by the Education Bureau anymore.

Police Commissioner Raymond Siu Chak-yee said that even if groups disbanded, there was no "indemnity" against investigation and that the force had gathered evidence against a variety of political organizations.

Siu says there is evidence against various groups

Political commentator Chung Kim-wah insisted there was clearly an ongoing crackdown on civil groups, given it was hard for many of them, including the alliance, to avoid connections with overseas pro-democracy bodies. He questioned, however, if authorities could silence dissent through such actions.

"The movement advocated by the alliance for more than 30 years has become part of the city's identity. The crackdown on it won't make people forget June 4," he said.

And by extension the anti-government protests of 2019...