POST OCCUPY CENTRAL - DAY 49 (02-02-2015)

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  ...

POST OCCUPY CENTRAL - DAY 49: 

Full coverage of the day’s events

Sheung Shui arson arrests



A Sheung Shui store stocking parallel imports was set on fire, hours after three people were arrested on suspicion of inciting others to commit arson.

A police spokesman said a message on the internet called on the public to set fire to goods belonging to parallel traders at a shopping plaza in Sheung Shui. It also showed a photo of a Sheung Shui store burning on January 24.

Additional police were sent to patrol the vicinity of Shek Wu Hui and a man was held at about 2am on Sunday.

The 19-year-old was arrested after matches, three knives, facemask, gloves, and a map were found on him.

Nine hours later, police saw two men trying to start a fire in front of a shop and stopped them.

The two, aged 18 and 19, were arrested and a lighter, gloves, map and facemask were found on them.

Meanwhile, a shop in Sheung Shui, which sold various parallel imported goods, caught fire last night, after the police announced the arrest of the three.

The shop is located opposite the Royal Jubilee shopping plaza. An employee in a salon next to the shop helped to extinguish the flames.

Police arrived soon after and found a half-melted plastic bottle and a lighter at the scene.

Closed-circuit television footage showed the suspect as male, wearing a gray hoodie, black cap and blue jeans. He was still at large last night.




Rally organizer `shocked' by low turnout 

 

Civil Human Rights Front plans to review its tactics on how to organize future rallies following a less than satisfactory turnout on Sunday.

Convener Daisy Chan Sin- ying said she was shocked to learn that just 13,000 people had turned up, about a quarter of the 50,000 expected.

She said that while the number of participants was small, she still believes that Hong Kong people fully support genuine universal suffrage and not the fake offer by Beijing.

Speaking on a radio program yesterday, Chan said the 50,000 was a technical estimation.

"If there are not too many people, police will not open many roads," she said.

Chan also said a rally with more than 10,000 people is not a small number and bears political influence.

She said people may be thinking of other means of protest and that the small turnout does not mean that the public has given up.

She said that when the Hong Kong Federation of Students last September called for a class boycott, they likewise did not foresee the large-scale social movement that followed afterwards.

"When a political problem is still not solved, discontent among citizens exists. People are waiting for another chance," Chan said.

Chan also said young people have been organizing their own activities such as forming discussion teams to spread the message of true democracy to communities and so not many needed to join the protest.

Sunday was the first mass protest since the Occupy movement was quashed late last year.





Lam rules out reforms trade-off with pan-dems




The government will not take part in a trade-off just to win several votes from the pan- democratic camp to pass its political reforms in the Legislative Council, Chief Secretary for Administration Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said yesterday.

Speaking at a business forum, Lam said the electoral arrangement for the 2020 Legco election could only be confirmed after the implementation of universal suffrage in the 2017 chief executive election.

She said it is too early to say whether functional constituencies can be abolished.

"It will be a lost situation. One of the losses will be the lost opportunity for universal suffrage in the CE election and the loss of the opportunity of direct elections in Legco," she said.

"However, if we can achieve the implementation of universal suffrage in the 2017 CE election, Hong Kong's democratic development can take a step forward."

Former secretary for justice Elsie Leung Oi-sie agreed and wrote in a newspaper column yesterday the abolition of functional constituencies in the 2020 Legco elections is not pragmatic.

"It is big progress in democratic development for the implementation of universal suffrage in the chief executive election but when we go into a system that we have not tried before, it is necessary to be cautious," she said.

"The request for the National People's Congress Standing Committee to make a decision on the abolition of the functional constituencies in 2020 means to reject the August 31 decision. It is not pragmatic."

Her comments come after Civic Party lawmaker Ronny Tong Ka-wah said last week he was prepared to lobby pan- democrats to support political reforms if Beijing pledges to abolish functional constituencies in the 2020 Legco election.

Meanwhile, Hang Lung Properties chairman Ronnie Chan Chi-chung said it was "odd" some people raised the claim of self-determination after an article in the University of Hong Kong's Undergrad magazine gained publicity after being denounced by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying earlier this month in the policy address.

Chan said Hong Kong is not a country and is part of the mainland, and the SAR government's powers originate from the central government.


He said the political mechanism in Hong Kong must be acceptable to Beijing.






Forget about scrapping seats, says CY



Chief Executive Leung Chun- ying has poured cold water on calls for the abolition of functional constituencies in the 2020 Legislative Council election.

Leung said yesterday that Hong Kong is now mired in an all- or-nothing situation, and that no changes will be made if a decision on the 2017 chief executive election, based on the National People's Congress Standing Committee's August 31 declaration, cannot be reached.

"The scrapping of functional constituencies is not something that the SAR government can promise at this stage," Leung said. He added that the 2017 election will either be designed based on the Standing Committee's framework, or the election method used in 2012.

"We either adhere to the ... August 31 decision to pursue universal suffrage or no progress will be made," Leung said, adding that Hong Kong needs to make a choice between the two options.

He said it is impossible for Hong Kong to ignore the August 31 decision, as the power of the SAR, which enjoys a high degree of autonomy, has been given by the central government.

Leung said under the Basic Law, it is clearly stipulated that the chief executive is appointed by the central government. A government source last month said that the administration could spell out the electoral arrangements for the 2022 CE election in exchange for pan-democrats' support for the 2017 reform package.

Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Raymond Tam Chi-yuen said earlier it may be possible for the composition of the nominating committee and the nomination process to be changed in time for the 2022 election.

But Tam said the 50 percent support of nominating committee members, required by would-be chief executive candidates, will not be easily changed in 2022 or beyond.

Civic Party lawmaker Ronny Tong Ka-wah, who earlier offered to lobby pan- democrats to support the government's political reform proposal if Beijing pledges direct elections to Legco in 2020, said: "I will still try my best to pursue the abolition of functional constituencies, though I believe it will be hard to persuade Beijing to abolish the functional constituencies."

City University political analyst James Sung Lap-kung said it is unlikely Beijing will make a pledge on the abolition of functional constituencies in the 2020 Legco election at this stage.


Sung said it appeared both the government and pan-democrats are testing each other's bottom line.





















Conflict in Tai Po

To understand what happened in Tai Po yesterday you have to first know what happened in Kwun Tong last weekend.

A lot of money is now being pumped into grassroots groups that support the Blue Ribbons, which are flush with cash but short on real, quality support. In comparison, local grass root Pro-Democracy groups are all but penniless, but have growing, committed support. The CCP wishes to turn these groups against one another. This is classic CCP tactic, or create enemies and contradictions between the people, so people fight people leaving the CCP to pillage unfettered and uncriticised. The CCP have being instigating this kind of class struggle since their inception and they have a lot of experience with it. However, what they don't have experience with are genuinely civic minded groups that can't just be locked up for a decade to remove the problem. Meaning, that in HK their tried and tested methods don't get the traction they're used to on the Mainland.

Which brings us back to Kwun Tong. Last Sunday the Blue Ribbons had a stage set up. There are several videos of the speakers on stage and one can confidently say that what they were advocating wasn't really resonating with the passers-by. What was interesting is that anyone who tried to film the stage was quickly surrounded by a number of people who blocked the camera and acted menacingly. Which beggars the question, why are they making a stage if they don't want their message to be filmed and recorded? Maybe the person filming wanted to promote the message? The reality is these groups are very exclusive, not inclusive. They may be on the streets spreading their message, but their target audience is generally reserved for a small group of people who think exactly like them. Any challenging questions will be quickly met with intimidation, violence and gestures for you to leave. 

A single person who supports democracy would be crazy to open up discussion in these areas, even a small group would? So, what would happen if a large group of pro-democracy advocates walked passed?

Well that's exactly what happened last weekend in Kwun Tong. After a few incidents where Blue Ribbons violently intimidated Yellow supporters earlier in the day,  a reasonably large group of Civic Passion supporters, with banners and flags walked by the Blue Ribbon stage and were immediately accosted by their guarding goons. A quasi-street battle ensued with the Civic Passion supporters getting the worst of it. All their banners were destroyed and they were left scurrying for safety. The police that were there stood by and watched the Blues rough up the Yellows. 

As more police reinforcements arrived, the Civic Passion supporters complained to the police and were duly arrested for common assault. Six in total. No Blue Ribbons were arrested for instigating the violence. Instead some were sent away in ambulances while those complaining that they had been attacked were carted off to the police station. To show their indignation at the hypocrisy of the police, Civic Passion supporters then gathered outside the Kwun Tong police station for a vigil until their members were released. As far as I'm aware, the police are pressing on with their intent to charge those attacked with assault.

The implications for this event are far reaching for HK society. I wont even touch on the highly explosive idea of police openly supporting attackers and not those being attacked, but will save this for another day.

Instead, we will move on to yesterday's incident in Tai Po.

There is a direct link to what happened in Kwun Tong and what took place in Tai Po. Civic Passion and Frontline Democracy(本土民主前線), decided that they would not be intimidated by the Blue Ribbon's campaign of fear and intimidation on the streets. Leticia Lee, the face of the Blue Ribbons, was scheduled to have another street stand in Tai Po, so they would meet her there directly. They knew from the onset that they would experience incredible prejudice from the police if they turned up in numbers, which they did. But this would not stop them. The purpose of yesterday's action was to highlight the clear hypocrisy and collusion of the police. In this respect, the operation in Tai Po was a complete success. Police hypocrisy was in abundant display yesterday in Tai Po.

It is an accepted part of HK society today that the police will let goons loiter around Blue Ribbon stands and not bat an eye-lid if they decide to rough up the odd Yellow Ribbon. In fact, police are often their as supporters. Supposed civilians who were manning the Blue Stage were later seen in police uniform at Tai Po police station. This is how hand-in-glove the Blue Ribbons are with the police. The violence that is ever-present around the Blues is an in disputable fact that can be field-tested by anyone brave enough to believe the contrary. Don't take my word for it, go and test it for yourself. 

In stark contrast to this, despite it being the Blue Ribbons that manifest violence on a regular basis it's the Yellow Ribbons who are immediately mobbed by huge numbers of police should they begin to form up. This is exactly what happened in Tai Po. Once Civic Passion and Frontline Democracy began to move the police were all over them, pushing shoving and not letting them move freely. 

Admittedly, the police argument is, if we let the Yellows near the Blues, there will be a danger of a disturbance, we're only keeping the peace. And this is exactly the reason why everyone went to Tai Po yesterday. To highlight that there IS a danger of disturbance, and right on cue, the police let the Blue Ribbons repeatedly express their anger and violence, yet cracked down on the Yellows. The danger of violence is ever-present from the Blues, but the police always take the opportunity to antagonise the Yellows. Extreme elements of the Blues and the police are hand-in-glove. One of the same. The Blues are the political wing of the police and the police will not tolerate their message being closed down. Unlike the Yellows, which they'll actively take part in.

Yesterday's action was a clear show of force by the Yellows, A warning to the Blues, that they will not get away with their goon tactics in the districts, even with police support and the cost of them will significantly increase. The police are on notice too that if Leticia Lee wants to spread the message of hate and violence for them, then they will be met with a strong showing of power from the pro-democracy direct-action groups. They will not be intimidated off the streets. The police will have to mobilise vast resources of men if they continue to let the Blue Ribbon Goons control the message in the districts. This is an important fight which Civic Passion and Democracy Frontline are leading. Both HKFS and Scholarism have intentions to take the Pro-democracy message to the districts. The unspoken tactic from the government is that CCP United Front groups will prevent this through intimidation and violence and the police will look the other way.  As a pro-dem supporter, you may think that Civic Passion and Frontline Democracy are too radical for you, but if they aren't going to lead this fight, who will and the districts will become a place where no one other than the Blue Ribbons can speak their message freely.
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The police were caught entirely on the hop with this action. Photos of the western commander turning up in his Sunday sweater shows that all their focus was on Central. On top of this, once again, the police proved that there really is no low for them and their political beliefs. Photos and videos of them providing bus services for the Blues, loading all their gear into police vans, letting blue Ribbons act disorderly yet swinging batons at Yellows who act similar all paint a picture of a police force in political and moral free fall. For them it's now personal, they are one in the same with the Blues and when they feel like they are threatened they will happily unleash the full powers invested in them as police officers to protect themselves. As a Yellow you can expect no such liberty or protection anytime soon from the police. The prejudice within the police no runs extremely deep. I have even felt this in my own personal life.

So, to conclude....The age of large demonstrations on HK Island is over. 

The fight is now in the districts, please support!

One things for sure, we will see a lot more bad policing and goon behaviour before a victor emerges.