Aspects of the event's organization might have been messy at times, but this showed that the pro-establishment camp was stepping out of its comfort zone. Before the anti-"Occupy" campaign, there was widespread belief within the pro-establishment camp that mass organizations and mobilizations were taboo. On the one hand, they lacked confidence and felt they could never achieve the same kind of results with rallies that the dissidents were achieving. On the other hand, they also felt the crowds were dangerous, uncontrollable and unpredictable. If a Pandora's box was opened, they believed, all hell would break lose.

The positive reception given to the anti-"Occupy" protest, organized by the Alliance for Peace and Democracy, is going to take politics in the territory into a new era. The pro-establishment camp will no longer shy away from mass movements. This is a paradigm shift, with wide-ranging implications.

The dissidents will cry foul as they no longer hold the monopoly in mass rallies and demonstrations, but as Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said when signing the petition against "Occupy", sometimes there is no neutral ground. The grey area is rapidly vanishing, but it is not the Alliance for Peace and Democracy that is making it disappear. The dissidents did it themselves.

D100, the opposition-leaning Internet radio station, established by Lam Yuk-wah, Albert Cheng and Morris Ho, has announced the dismissal of music program host Eric Ng Ka-lim. This is because Ng "dared" to be the master of ceremonies at the anti-"Occupy" protest. You cannot fire someone because he or she is gay, but you can if you don't like his/her political views. Whether we like it or not, this is the reality of life in Hong Kong today - and it is all out in the open.

The author is a veteran current affairs commentator.

(China Daily 08/21/2014 page9)