Linton P. Gordon
The wealthy and sophisticated city of Hong Kong has been brought to a standstill over the past four (4) weeks due to demonstrations being lead mainly by students. The main contention of the students is that mainland China has to approve candidates running for the top political position in Hong Kong.
It must be appreciated that Hong Kong was for years a British Colony and was only returned to the jurisdiction of the People’s Republic of China in 1997. Hong Kong is now a part of the People’s Republic of China. However, it appears that a number of citizens including the students demonstrating wish to have a system of Government that fully recognizes Universal Adult Suffrage and adheres to it at all levels.
FINANCIAL CENTRE
The students took to the streets demonstrating. They camped in the highways bringing Hong Kong to a halt. Hong Kong, we know, is the leading financial centre in Asia. Millions of dollars are handled in Hong Kong minutely, 24/7 for transactions all over the world. Real Estate in Hong Kong is among the most expensive on earth. Some of the richest citizens on earth either own property in Hong Kong or reside there.
China has so far not intervened directly to bring the demonstrations to a halt. The police in Hong Kong have shown great restraint so far. They have been adhering to the principle of minimum force, except one known instance of a video tape showing police throwing blows on a helpless demonstrator who was on the ground. There is now a new development around these demonstrations in Hong Kong and it is that several small business people, store owners, bus operators, hotels operators and taxi operators are now out on the streets demanding that the students cease blocking up the streets and allow the resumption of normal business. This has come about as the demonstrations have resulted in massive loss of income for these persons.
We can learn a very important lesson from this, which is, all persons exercising their right to demonstrate should also respect the rights of other persons, especially innocent third parties who did not create the situation against which they are demonstrating and who cannot remedy or remove the situation against which they are demonstrating.
Here in Jamaica we regularly experience citizens demonstrating along the public thoroughfare at which time they prevent everyone from continuing along the public thoroughfare. The right to demonstrate is an important constitutional right. It affords a citizen or a group of citizens the opportunity to bring their concerns to the attention of members of the public. However, it does not give demonstrators the right to deprive other citizens of their constitutional right.
Demonstrators who block the roads are themselves violating the constitutional rights of other citizens who are entitled to travel along the road from home to school, to college, to work, or to church or wherever they wish legally to go..
Nightly, we see demonstrators on the television demanding water, light, roads or “justice”. This is a sign that our democracy is healthy. However, when these demonstrators proceed to block the road and prevent the citizens from going about their business they are violating the rights of these citizens. (blurb) In this case, we have an ironic situation, in that, the very persons who are demanding constitutional right are, themselves, depriving fellow citizens of their constitutional rights. The authorities, the police in particular, should embark on a campaign of educating Jamaicans on how to conduct themselves during demonstrations. They should not discourage people from demonstrating as this is a constitutional right. Instead, citizens should be encouraged to so conduct themselves during demonstrations that they show respect for the rights of other citizens and that their actions do not amount to a violation of the rights of other citizens.
All Members of Parliament and Parish Councillors should make it known and indeed state publicly that while they support the right of citizens to demonstration they do not support depriving other citizens of their constitutional rights.
Our political representatives should also advise their constituents that in conducting demonstration they should not block the roads nor obstruct other citizens from going about their business. We can all be civilized towards each other when we are exercising our constitutional rights.
That is the essence of constitutional rights.
