KUALA LUMPUR — Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam must resign to take responsibility over the ongoing protests in the special administrative region, said Malaysia Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad on Friday (Oct 4).

He also predicted that China will eventually take severe action against the protestors.

Dr Mahathir was responding to questions on his advice for Ms Lam at the Lawasia conference in Petaling Jaya on Friday morning.

“The fact is that she is in a dilemma, she has to obey the masters (but) at the same time, she has to ask her conscience, her conscience says that the people of Hong Kong are right in rejecting the law.

“But she knows the consequence of rejecting the (extradition) law.

“It happened in China, in the Tiananmen matter. The people who demonstrated (were) also the relatives of the soldiers in that area so what they did was they bring in soldiers from other areas and they took the action, harsh action to put an end to the demonstration.

“I think in the end, that is what China will do but for the administrator, I think (the) best thing is to resign,” he said during the Constitutional and Rule of Law Conference.

Dr Mahathir was referring to the infamous Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing, 1989, in which hundreds of thousands of troops were deployed to quell pro-democracy protests with lethal force.

Hong Kong has been wracked with months of unrest, which was triggered by a proposed law that allows the extradition of criminals from the city to China. 

The initially peaceful protests have descended into violence, with rioters armed with blunt weapons assaulting police while cops respond in force, most recently shooting a protester in the chest with a revolver. THE MALAYSIAN INSIGHT