CLAUDE LEVI STRAUSS, who studied the ancient anthropological underpinnings of modern behaviour, has cited the examples of ancient tribes who used to exchange women in order to stop a war between two tribes as a token of settlement. The one who receives booty treats the woman as they please. 
 
There are other scholars who have found that some tribes also exchanged innocent weak members of a tribe as a victim to sacrificed to settle feuds and to prevent the spread of violence between the entire tribes. The tribes, then, never bothered about the thoughts of the victim or the woman in exchange. 
 
Hong Kong has been a woman and a victim in an exchange. Since the time of Opium War, Hong Kong was treated like a disposable pawn caught in the war between the dynasties of China and Britain. The action was repeated when Hong Kong was returned to China. What is sacrificed is the right to self-determination of the people of Hong Kong, the victim. 
 
One of the mistakes in the references of these transfer agreements is silencing of the victim. This, in the case of Hong Kong was, achieved by conveniently depersonalising the people or citizens of Hong Kong into a place name. Places are impersonal and become properties that can be can bought and sold. No wonder there is a real estate dealer’s treatment to Hong Kong, bartered between Britain and China. 
 
Hong Kong’s unrest is the process of a victim recovering its stifled voice. So, the unrest in Hong Kong cannot be just reduced to a response to the extradition bill. It has more to do with the aspiration of its people for self-determination. The government has termed the protest illegal by calling it a riot. 
 
Unlike other places, a neat and orderly protest by the citizens of Hong Kong with super standards of civic sense to be named as a riot is outrageous. Somehow, the parties with vested interests joining in the fray have mistaken the civic sense of Hongkongers for timidity and are trying to intimidate the protesters with violence and calling them rioters. Hong Kong citizens are not to be cowed down by such displays of foul power.
 
The new development in the scenario is the group of people who are advocating the merger with China. It is important to identify the origin and identity of these groups and their leadership. If they are genuine citizens of Hong Kong, they should come forward to a round table discussion. 
 
It is a mistake to denote the silence of the cemetery as peace. It is not peace, but a sign of death. True peace is not about silence, but the guarantee of safety and freedom for every citizen. Letting an outside player to criminalise the citizen of another country because they have offended the laws of a foreign country is farcical and flexing muscles over the freedom of another to manufacture consent.
 
The best way out is for the government be straightforward and represent the aspirations of the people. It is not right to rule a people without their unforced consent. It is not right to rule a people for the benefit of a few. It is not right to rule a people for the benefit of another people! 甘天霖