POST REFORM VOTE：DAY 55 (12-08-2015)

Occupy Central

Occupy Central is a civil disobedience movement which began in Hong Kong on September 28, 2014. It calls on thousands of protesters to block roads and paralyse Hong Kong's financial district if the Beijing and Hong Kong governments do not agree to implement universal suffrage for the chief executive election in 2017 and the Legislative Council elections in 2020 according to "international standards." The movement was initiated by Benny Tai Yiu-ting (戴耀廷), an associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong, in January 2013.

Umbrella Movement

The Umbrella Movement (Chinese: 雨傘運動; pinyin: yǔsǎn yùndòng) is a loose political movement that was created spontaneously during the Hong Kong protests of 2014. Its name derives from the recognition of the umbrella as a symbol of defiance and resistance against the Hong Kong government, and the united grass-roots objection to the decision of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPCSC) of 31 August.

The movement consists of individuals numbering in the tens of thousands who participated in the protests that began on 28 September 2014, although Scholarism, the Hong Kong Federation of Students, Occupy Central with Love and Peace,  groups are principally driving the demands for the rescission of the NPCSC decision.

Occupy Central site in Causeway Bay was cleared as police moved in  ...

Occupy Central site in an area surrounding the Legislative Council and Central Government Offices at Tamar were cleared 22-06-2015.

Hong Kong reform vote

The Hong Kong government’s political reform proposal for how the city elects its leader by universal suffrage for the first time in 2017 is based on a strict framework set by Beijing. The plan limits the number of candidates to two or three and requires them to win majority support from a 1,200 strong nominating committee. Arguing that this does not constitute genuine universal suffrage, pan-democratic lawmakers have vowed to reject the package, while pro-democracy groups have protested. The government’s resolution was to be put to a vote by the 70-member Legislative Council in June 2015, requiring a two-thirds majority to be passed.

POST OCCUPY CENTRAL - DAY 240

POST REFORM VOTE：DAY 55 (12-08-2015)

Full coverage of the day’s events  

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Would-be voters signing on from odd addresses



Would-be voters who have given public venues such as the Cultural Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui and parks as a primary address could be in the clear, the Electoral Affairs Commission declares.

Commission officers checked around 10 such claims and found the potential voters had been truthful.

"Many suspicious addresses are in fact the principal addresses," commission chairman Barnabas Fung Wah revealed yesterday.

He did not say if the people are homeless but agreed housing is a big problem. So officers will now seek third-party evidence when non-residential addresses are given during registration.

Even if people violate the Buildings Ordinance "we won't ban them from using the addresses for registration," Fung added.

"According to UN human rights clauses one should enjoy voting rights even without a conventional address."

His comments came after the media found addresses including the Cultural Centre and the Island Shangri-La hotel on the 2015 provisional register of electors released by the Registration and Electoral Office on July 31.

And homeless people in Sham Shui Po used parks and playgrounds as addresses. A 58-year-old man in a playground had lived there for nine years.

There did appear to be irregularities at homes for the elderly. There was a surge in registered voters at several homes though residents were ignorant about elections or the voter process.

The commission has an anti-vote- rigging mechanism, and homes for the elderly are monitored routinely.

Chief electoral officer Li Pak-hong said no involuntary registration of the elderly has been detected so far, and he has reservations about naming them as a high- risk group for rigging.

But there are more measures to prevent manipulation of the elderly in voting.

According to the 2015 provisional register, there are 243,000 registered voters aged 66 to 70 an increase of almost 50 percent from 2011 when the last district council elections were held.

Voters from 18 to 22 fell 23 percent to 112,000 during the same period.

Since 2012, the police and the ICAC have looked into more than 10,000 suspected cases of vote rigging. That led to 66 prosecutions and 57 convictions.






Why RTHK and HKU should be independent of the govt

Why are there always people kicking up a fuss about the autonomy of RTHK and the University of Hong Kong every couple of years?

Aren’t RTHK and HKU already independent institutions with full autonomy, some may ask.

The answer is simple: these two institutions are independent in name only.

Those who kick up the biggest fuss are often people who have a vested interest in these institutions, and the last thing they want is RTHK and HKU gaining true independence from the government and enjoying full autonomy, because if that comes true, their interests will be threatened.

The HKU convocation will convene an urgent meeting on Sept. 1.

Among the motions to be put to the vote is one proposed by legislator Ip Kin-yuen and 23 other alumni,

It demands that HKU’s council make a decision on whether to name Professor Johannes Chan Man-mun the university’s fifth pro vice chancellor, as recommended by the search committee, or else publish a written explanation for not doing so.

Their demand sounds intimidating, but it probably won’t make any difference whatsoever.

What could be easier than for the council to prepare a written statement to justify whatever it has decided.

How many written explanations would the convocation like to have: 10 or 20?

Since I support all kinds of progressive movements that aim to bring about change in society, I will still attend that urgent meeting and cast my vote.

However, as a seasoned political commentator, I must point out that if we don’t ditch the “slave’s mindset” and start standing up for the rights to which we are entitled, instead of begging the dictators for leniency, the convocation’s action will end up being nothing more than a symbolic ritual, like the June 4 candlelight vigil and the July 1 protest.

Ip said he would push for an amendment to the law to abolish the long-standing system under which the city’s chief executive is the ex-officio chancellor of its universities.

Unfortunately, changing the law is within the jurisdiction of the Legislative Council.

Under the split voting system, it is almost certain that any amendment put forward by the pan-democrats will be defeated, and there is nothing the great HKU convocation can do about that.

It is in fact so typical of the pan-democrats to come up with plans like that, because as always, all they are good at is pulling publicity stunts instead of putting up a real fight, and what usually follows is a big round of applause they give themselves and the three cheers from their ignorant supporters.

If I were Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying, I would order the HKU council to call another meeting and formally reject the appointment of Chan as pro vice chancellor.

Only a whip can remind a slave of his identity, while kindness may often give him the wrong impression that he is calling the shots.

As our national anthem has taught us, the only way to cease being a slave is to rise against the dictators, not to reason with them.

Therefore, in the short run, the only way to break the stalemate is for the students and alumni to boycott classes and occupy the campus.

In the long run, privatization is the only way to guarantee the full autonomy of our universities, to keep them away from the claws of political interference once and for all.

As the oldest and most prestigious university in Hong Kong, HKU should take the lead in doing so.

The same reasoning also applies to RTHK.

The problem with the RTHK is that its staff want to have it both ways — on one hand insisting on remaining on the civil service payroll for the sake of job security, but on the other hand demanding full autonomy and press freedom.

As a result, the public often gets entangled in endless arguments over the status of RTHK.

And the people of Hong Kong are just getting fed up with that.

The most pressing task for Leung Ka-wing, RTHK’s new chief, is not to monitor the organization on behalf of the government but, rather, to lead RTHK toward privatization, like the BBC.

In fact it is wrong to assume that the government has to maintain its own institutional mouthpiece in the traditional sense, for in the digital era, the government can set up its own official news agency easily.

I believe the public would be happy to see RTHK gain full independence from the government bureaucracy.

Hong Kong's laissez-faire economic policy is 'outdated', says CY Leung

Chief executive says free-market approach hinders development compared to competitors such as Singapore and South Korea

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Hong Kong chief executive Leung Chun-ying is calling for government to take a leading role in the city's big business decisions.

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has made his strongest call yet for Hong Kong to ditch its hands-off economic policy, calling it outdated and arguing that it was time for the government to take a leading role in the city's big business decisions.

He revived the issue of giving up the "positive non-intervention" policy, first floated in his 2012 election manifesto, in an interview with Xinhua published yesterday - his first since the failure of his political reform package in June. Leung had suggested Hong Kong should build an appropriately proactive government and drop its laissez-faire approach.

Leung said the policy, inherited from colonial times, was outdated in the face of a changing global economy and increasingly intense competition.

"One of the reasons I put forward such a new idea is because the competitors of Hong Kong have been very proactive in [addressing] the economic and livelihood issues," he said.

"As an economy to compete with places like Singapore and South Korea, Hong Kong has no choice but to consider what role the government should play."

That role should be one of a proactive leader and coordinator with the business sector, he said, noting Singapore's advantages as a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and South Korea's success in developing its creative industry.

The chief executive said his government should seize the opportunity to act as a "super connector" in the mainland's "One Belt, One Road" initiative, adding that a special bureau might be set up to work on the matter.

Leung continued to hit out at pan-democrat lawmakers as he reiterated the need to put economic development ahead of politics for the rest of his term after spending time unsuccessfully promoting political reform.

"Two of the past three years have been spent on political reform. That's why I said we had to transfer the energy to economic and livelihood issues after the end of the reform vote," he said. "There are some obstructing forces within Hong Kong - including the filibustering staged by the opposition forces in the Legislative Council - which have dragged down the pace of the city's economic development."

Liberal Party chairman Felix Chung Kwok-pan said the policy of positive non-intervention had been the cornerstone of the city's success and made Hong Kong one of the freest economies in the world. "How proactive does Leung want the government to be," he asked. "If the intervention is severe then Hong Kong would no longer be Hong Kong."

Chung said Leung should instead focus on improving the business environment. He said more government intervention would not help grow the economy and would further dampen sentiment among businesses.

Leung's predecessor, Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, was a champion of the positive non-intervention policy, but raised eyebrows in 2006 when he suggested the city could move away from it.

Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau Wai-hing criticised Leung for giving his first interview in the wake of the reform failure to Xinhua, suggesting he was accountable to Beijing instead of the Hong Kong public.

Lau also accused Leung of hypocrisy for saying he wanted to mend his relationship with lawmakers across the spectrum after the reform vote and then attacking the pan-democrats through the state news agency.