My Take | How to promote terrorist wannabes
- When you excuse and justify violence and riots, those involved feel emboldened and vindicated
- Sooner or later, rioters who are prone to violence and extreme actions will try to go all the way and endanger lives
While our opposition lawmakers and their media allies have been busy telling the world that our young rioters are really peace-loving youngsters, a few of them have graduated to playing terrorists.
Fortunately, police have arrested three suspects and seized 2kg of powerful explosives, 10 petrol bombs, at least one can of kerosene and liquid acid in the home-made lab, along with gas masks, goggles, hard hats and catapults.
The explosives include large quantities of triacetone triperoxide (TATP), a bomb-making substance of choice of global terrorists. It has been used in bombings in Israel and Britain, including the London terrorist attacks of July 7, 2005, in which 52 people were killed and more than 700 injured.
Conspiracy theories are already circulating. It was a “false flag” operation, planted by the police and/or mainland Chinese intelligence agents. Who knows? It’s not impossible but highly improbable. (Read about them on Facebook @yhmetblogspot and threads on the popular lihkg.com)
More likely, it’s a case of “I told you so”. When you excuse and justify violence and riots, those involved feel emboldened and vindicated. When you shout down critics who have voiced legitimate concerns about the escalating cycles of violence as wumao and Beijing apologists, you silence the only segment of public opinion that helps to restrain the rioters’ behaviour.
