Opinion | Obama’s warning about ‘woke’ culture could have been directed at Hong Kong during the protests

Hong Kong’s fervent young protesters have turned to harassment or even assault against those who disagree with them, an even more extreme form of the behaviour the former president recently criticised among American progressives

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Anti-government protesters demonstrate in Mong Kok on October 20. Photo: Felix Wong

Published: 3:00am, 4 Nov 2019Updated: 3:14am, 4 Nov 2019

All the talk about the Hong Kong government being determined to stop the violence and restore calm in the city is, well, just talk. Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor repeats these empty words week after week but there’s little determination to act and that’s why her popularity just took another dip. People can tell it’s lip service.

What has happened to the dialogue platform Lam took all summer to set up? There was one public forum that achieved nothing as public anger rose and violent confrontations on the streets escalated. Hong Kong seems determined to keep burning.

So, here we are, at week 22, and there is no sign of anything abating. The violence on the streets cannot be curbed. There is no sign of calm on the horizon. Empty talk achieves nothing. And (un)fortunately, most have stopped looking to Lam for any sort of leadership or words that carry any weight. But that’s not saying her words aren’t “effectual”.

Just last Tuesday, Lam blamed violent protesters for Hong Kong’s economics woes and accused them of “finding excuses” to unleash chaos and, of course, by saying that, she was the perfect “excuse” for them get back out there again.

Surely, calling them out doesn’t solve anything, nor does it show her government’s determination to stop the violence. Perhaps that’s what former US president Barack Obama, who was elected 11 years ago on Monday, was talking about at the Obama Foundation Summit at the Illinois Institute of Technology last week, when he said that such call-outs are “not activism”.