POST OCCUPY CENTRAL - DAY 177 (11-06-2015)

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 177:

Full coverage of the day’s events on 11-06

Protest groups unhappy as cops get ready



Protest groups have criticized police preparations for rallies against the government's political reform package starting Sunday.
The reform proposal will be tabled at the Legislative Council on Wednesday, with a vote likely to be taken the day after at the earliest.

Police sources said yesterday about 7,000 to 8,000 officers will be on standby starting Sunday, with two shifts each lasting 12 hours.

About 50,000 people are expected to join a five-day series of protests led by the Civil Human Rights Front, starting Sunday outside the Legco complex in Tamar.

The Appeal Board on Public Meetings and Processions yesterday rejected an appeal by the front to hold rallies at Tim Mei Avenue in addition to the designated demonstration area outside the Legislative Council.

In addition, police have put up notices asking the owners of 120 tents in the avenue to contact the authorities in a sign that clearance may also be undertaken.

Pro-democracy legislator Lee Cheuk-yan said: "They don't want people to come, so they're trying to scare them.

"There isn't a problem; [the police are] telling half-truths to provoke a crisis."

At the appeal board hearing, police said previous rallies by the front have resulted in scuffles and violence, adding that some radical activists may also take the opportunity to use violence.

Tim Mei Avenue also has about 130 protest tents in the so-called "Tim Mei Village."

Some are said to be erected through the use of metal nails and a public safety issue remains.

But front representative Cheng Sze-lut, said: "We will communicate with those in Tim Mei Village, and we believe that citizens will be able to restrain themselves [from misusing materials from the tents]."

The appeal was overruled mostly due to the fact that Tim Mei Avenue is a main traffic route used by the vehicles of lawmakers.


The four-member board agreed with the concerns expressed by the police.




Poll swings against political reform ideas


oppose
support

For the first time since polling began in April more citizens oppose the administration's political reform package than those in support.
That turn is seen in the latest joint university rolling poll released yesterday. Drawing on June 3-7 data, pollsters said that, of more than 1,100 respondents, 43 percent oppose reform compared to 41.7 percent backing it.

On Wednesday, polling results figured up to then showed a neck-and-neck situation, with the for and against camps even on 42.8 percent.

Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau Wai-hing said the latest results are proof that the administration's campaign to promote the proposal has failed miserably.

The results, she went on, showed that people increasingly find it hard to accept the official reform proposal on what is supposed to be universal suffrage.

The Civic Party's Alan Leong Kah-kit said the pan-democratic camp will not hesitate to vote down the reform next week.

"We hope that the central and SAR governments will restart the five-step procedures on the political reform as early as possible after the reform is voted down," he added.

But Starry Lee Wai-king, chairwoman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, called for legislators who planned to veto the reform next Wednesday to "take into account the interests of society overall and support it."

If the reform was voted down, she said, it meant that the 2017 election for chief executive would again be decided by the Election Committee and its 1,200 members.

"The five-step procedure will not be restarted [in the coming two years] after the reform is voted down," she declared.

Party colleague Ann Chiang Lai-wan said the polls should be used only as a reference and should not be the guiding factor when it comes to a legislator making a voting decision.

But, Chiang added, the administration should review its propaganda campaign on reform as more citizens have come out to oppose the package since the campaign was launched.

Speaking for the Liberal Party, legislator James Tien Pei-chun said he and his colleagues would still be voting for the reform proposal.

Meanwhile, Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Standing Committee member Henry Tang Ying-yen said he was worried the reform might not be passed.

Legislators should seize the opportunity to give citizens the chance to elect a chief executive through one person, one vote, he added.

Coconuts

HongKong