Hong Kong Protesters' Demands 'Humiliating' To Government, Says Singapore PM

Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong spent a good part of an hour-long address speaking on the unrest in Hong Kong that is entering its 20th consecutive week. He was speaking at the 2019 Forbes Global CEO Conference held in Singapore this week.

Lee has a good reason to be concerned because the Singaporean economy needs investors to have confidence in all of Asia of which Hong Kong and China play a big part. As to the protester's demands, he said, “Those are demands which are intended to humiliate and bring down the government.”

The pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong began with a single demand that an unpopular extradition bill be formally withdrawn. Chief Executive Carrie Lam was reluctant to meet this demand until early September. By then the protester's demands had grown to a full-fledged revolt with five demands.

In addition to the extradition bill, the other four demands are for an inquiry into alleged police brutality during the protests, full amnesty for all those arrested during the protests, the retraction of the classification of protesters as “rioters” and the implementation of full universal suffrage in the semi-autonomous Chinese city.

Lee commented that the demands were unlikely to solve the deep-seated issues linked to the “one country, two systems” formula for the government. Currently, Hongkongers enjoy a degree of freedom greater than the normal Chinese citizens on the mainland, who are under the total control of the Chinese Communist Party.

In 2047 the current agreement made in the early 1980s will expire and the population of Hong Kong will be under the same rule as the mainlanders. That obviously does not sit well with Hongkongers and may be one motivation for the current protests.

On Wednesday, Carrie Lam was forced to deliver an address via a video link due to heckling by pro-democratic lawmakers in the government’s Legislative Council. Prime Minister Lee described this as “very sad for Hong Kong”.

Lee also spoke about Singapore’s economy and how the unrest in Hong Kong will lower investor confidence. He said, “I don’t see any easy way forward because the demonstrators, they say they have five major demands, and not one can be compromised” in response to questions from Steve Forbes, the chairman and editor-in-chief of Forbes Media.

Lamenting that there was not any “upside” for Singapore, Lee added that because his country relies on trade, it can only thrive when other countries were prospering and doing business with it.