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.
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 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 257
POST REFORM VOTE：DAY 72 (29-08-2015)
POST REFORM VOTE：DAY 72 (29-08-2015)
Full coverage of the day’s events
Coconuts HKFrontline
Secretive meeting with Beijing official triggers backlash within Democratic Party
Key members of the Democratic Party met with a top Beijing official in charge of Hong Kong affairs on Wednesday, in a move that has triggered a backlash within the party. The party’s own central committee was only informed of the meeting after it had taken place.
The party informed of its central committee of the meeting on Thursday afternoon and held a press conference in the evening to make a public announcement.
Chairwoman Emily Lau Wai-hing, vice-chairmen Andrew Wan Siu-kin and Lo Kin-hei, chief executive Lam Cheuk-ting as well as lawmaker Wu Chi-wai attended the two-and-a-half-hour meeting with Feng Wei, deputy director of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office.
From left: Lam Cheuk-ting, Andrew Wan Siu-kin, Emily Lau Wai-hing, Lo Kin-hei. Photo: Apple Daily.
Lau denied that it was a “behind-closed-doors” meeting at the press conference, reported Ming Pao.
“Of course meetings are behind closed doors. Do you want us to meet at City Hall or the Hong Kong Stadium?” She said. “… Are you suggesting that we should hold meetings in front of television cameras every time?”
Au Nok-him, a member of party’s central committee told Ming Pao: “In the past, [the party] would only meet Beijing officials after detailed discussions within the central committee. This time, we were only notified after the meeting… It is not in accordance with the democracy within the party.”
In 2010, the Democratic Party met with the China Liaison Office. Photo: Apple Daily.
Lau told Feng about the Democratic Party’s concerns of the political situation in Hong Kong, she said.
“At the moment, Hong Kong is in deep trouble. Many problems have appeared and society has been seriously torn apart. If something was caused by the people appointed by the Chinese Central Government, then the Chinese Central Government should know about Hongkongers’ anger. We did not previously have an opportunity to tell them that,” Lau said.
The meeting marked the first contact of such kind between the two since a political reform package was rejected in June.
The political reform package was a plan by the Hong Kong government to introduce popular vote for the Chief Executive election, in which the candidates would first have to be vetted by a nomination committee. The proposal was rejected in LegCo in June, with Democratic Party lawmakers being among members who opposed to the proposal.
Pan-democrats called for water in schools to be tested, but the CY Leung administration decided to supply water filters instead, though not to kindergartens. Photos: HKEJ
Collusion, indifference, revenge all in week’s work for CY & Co.
It was a week that saw some of the worst examples of government collusion with property developers, staggering indifference to real concerns over children’s welfare and, just to cap it off, a nasty piece of political revenge.
Even by the dismal standards set by the Leung Chun-ying administration, the last week of August has come to resemble a perfect storm.
It is hard to pinpoint the center of this storm, but anxious parents with children going back to school will have no doubt where it lies.
Thanks to an initiative by two schools, working without government assistance, lead poisoning has been discovered in their water supply.
The obvious response, given the sensitivity of this matter, would have been for the administration to launch its own citywide testing of water in schools.
However, on Thursday it wheeled out a long line of second-tier officials (their bosses remained out of sight) to announce that widespread testing could not be done for all the usual reasons that come under the category of it being too bothersome, but in case this level of indifference was deemed to be insufficient, one of the bureaucrats had the temerity to explain that testing would only cause “unnecessary alarm”.
Yes, he actually accused Hong Kong parents of unnecessarily worrying about their children’s health after two months of a lead-poisoning scandal that has been bungled and bungled again by an administration that initially thought it could get away with pinpointing the blame for the whole affair on one single plumbing subcontractor.
Instead of conducting water tests, the government will provide water filters for schools built after 2005 — in other words, for less than 10 per cent of Hong Kong’s schools.
Private kindergartens, where 167,000 children are schooled, will have to fend for themselves.
So far, so very bad, but meanwhile, by the day, new discoveries are made of water supply contamination in public housing estates.
The government response is to whine about the lack of resources to tackle the problem.
New World empire
However, resources can, apparently be found, for accommodating the wishes of one of Hong Kong’s biggest property development companies.
In 2004, the government scandalously handed over control of the Tsim Sha Tsui waterfront to New World Development Co. Ltd. (00017.HK), which then created a tacky “Avenue of the Stars” to draw visitors into its adjacent properties.
Apparently this did not satisfy New World’s appetite for control of the waterfront, so it applied to extend its empire eastwards.
As ever, a mock public consultation exercise was held, but its results were not up to standard, because practically no one liked the idea of handing over this iconic part of Hong Kong’s landscape to the property developer.
The exercise was thus ignored, and the plan was rubber-stamped by the weasels who populate the Town Planning Board.
This was followed by a flurry of almost unbelievable government explanations for the decision to give New World a new management contract lasting until 2035.
Among the explanations advanced, which threaten to give satire a bad name, are that New World has done a great job so far, that there was no need for a competitive tender because this was a not-for-profit undertaking and that — don’t laugh too loud — the Leisure and Cultural Services Department will set up an advisory committee with “experts and community personalities” to help manage the project.
Apparently, New World has become a born-again non-profit organization, and it never entered the heads of the company’s management that the adjacent buildings it is busy putting up will in any way benefit from the project.
And, in case satire was not enough to cap off this week, the Department of Justice came up with that dish best served cold – otherwise known as revenge.
Justice delayed
On Thursday, three prominent student leaders were charged with offenses allegedly committed 11 months ago at the outset of the Occupy protests.
Only the willfully blind will seriously believe that politics has played no role in this matter.
The timing, nature of the charges and their selective nature wreaks of political manipulation by a regime that had resolved to ensure that the biggest challenge to its authority should not go unpunished.
This is not to say unlawful acts were not committed during the Occupy protests, but when they involved police beating up a protester, no charges have been laid.
Selective application of the law is a sure way of undermining rule of law.
Moreover the old legal adage “justice delayed is justice denied” has a real meaning here, as the timing of these cases was clearly maneuvered to suit a political agenda.
What a week!
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