Raucous riots. An unrepentant incumbent leader. A nation divided. And democratic institutions challenged by un-democratic forces.
Scenes that America had for long disparaged as the produce of authoritarian states took Capitol Hill by storm on January 6. In many ways, the events that day epitomise how far the country has descended from its historical role as a paradigm for democracy – that many had turned to as source of inspiration and thought leadership.
A 2020 Pew Research poll revealed that just 41% in the UK express a favourable opinion of the U.S., the lowest percentage in its survey history. Just 31% of the surveyed in France see the U.S. positively – equalling the ratings from March 2003, when the two countries were at loggerheads over the Iraq War. Only 9% in Belgium view Trump as capable of “doing the right thing in world affairs” – and even the staunchest American ally in the region, Japan, saw Trump’s support dwindle to 25%.
Trump was banned on Twitter on January 8; his ban was met with polarising reviews from, as expected, two polarly opposed political communities. Yet to portray the reaction towards his ban as being reducible entirely into party lines, would be an unhelpful distortion of reality.
Conservatives and Trump supporters were by no means the only folks who were uneasy about Trump’s being removed from the platform – there were also those who are reasonably concerned about the overreach of tech companies, as well as the potential slippery slope embarked upon by Twitter as the flood-gates to seeming censorship were pried open by the decision.
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It hasn’t been the best of years for Hong Kong. We’ve seen, and had, better.
That’s putting it mildly.
Let’s put it this way. Let’s put it more bluntly.
Hong Kong is confronted by – in many ways – a multi-dimensional crisis today. A crisis over its identity; a crisis over conflicting value systems, morphed out of power structures and cultures, rooted in schisms that have driven this city apart as politicking and vested interests have rendered reconciliation nigh-impossible; a crisis propelled by ossified governance, amplified by socioeconomic divisions and inequalities that threaten to drag us through the mud – and then some.