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The increasingly violent demonstrations that have taken place recently at the Legislative Council's (LegCo) headquarters represent a grossly embarrassing failure by the authorities to adequately protect an institution that is the very bedrock of governance. Its members, whether wise and principled or self-seeking trouble-makers, are nevertheless our lawmakers, and deserve respect, if not for themselves then for the offices they hold.

Commonsense measures should have been taken long before residents from Northeast New Territories and other protesters turned up last week to cause destruction outside the LegCo chambers. In the chaotic melee that followed, a glass door was shattered and police were forced to use pepper spray to push back the protestors.

Apparently the residents felt short-changed by the compensation and ameliorating measures being discussed, if not already offered, to ease their transition.

For more than 50 years the government has been resuming land to build housing and has encountered stiff opposition in many of these exercises. In the past, government representatives would meet with land-holding families whose homes must be pulled down to make way for progress. These officers from the Lands Department, Housing Department or district offices would explain the ameliorative measures to ease the families' relocation. One has to wonder whether sufficient consultation has been conducted, feelers put out to find out what they really wanted and the customary "sweeteners", that are part of these procedures, offered as in the past?

More simply put, this is a public relations train wreck that could, and should, have been avoided if some basic precautionary measures had been employed.

Another point is the harm done by outside hot-heads and activists with an anti-government axe to grind. What was done by the authorities to counter the trouble-making caused by their interference? Could something be done to ensure that demonstrators involved in last week's near-riot are all bona fide residents of the actual areas where the two New Towns will be built without violating people's right to assembly?

Meanwhile LegCo's security staff were poorly advised to imagine that their "obstacle course" of mills barriers would have worked against such a determined group.

Before this situation escalates into something more serious, can somebody in authority please take the initiative to deepen its consultation with the New Territories inhabitants, who are being affected, with a view to offering more effective ameliorative transition assistance, and ensure they would not be subjected to manipulation by political provocateurs who have a very different agenda.

The bigger question and worry is whether this marks the turning point where our traditional peaceful street protest marches and usually equally orderly on site demonstrations have escalated to destructive violence which have become the bane of many strife-torn countries overseas.

(HK Edition 06/17/2014 page9)