Occasional news
Sunday’s protest saw a stream of placards and black t-shirts flow for three hours from Victoria Park toward the government headquarters. Each called for democracy.
“Like everyone else here, I’m hoping for universal suffrage,” said Richard Simmons, an assistant professor at Lingnan University.
But the march was about more than democracy. Banners proclaimed that “New China Begins when CCP vanishes.” People chanted “No more CCP.” Monks, nuns and normal Christians obeyed instruction from their religious leaders to attend.
Mr Wong, 75, and Mr Leung, 70, attended the protest together. “The Communists are not people. They are devils,” said Mr Wong, who blames the Communist Party for the death of his wife and children who died in poverty in the 1950s. “I want to get rid of the communist monsters.”
Mr Leung said that “we should capture the government, take them to China and let them stay there.”
The vice-chairman of a youth group waving Taiwanese flags said that they were out to support democracy in Hong Kong and that Taiwan should be a model. Their motives seemed to go beyond this. A young member said that they were waving the flags because “the Taiwanese government is the Chinese government.”
One elderly man, Zhou Zhou Wen, dissented from the anti-Communist sentiment. A red banner, topped with a Chinese flag, towered above him. Marchers heckled him and yelled insults. A passer-by shouted back at the marchers, pointing at the sign which denounced the worship of western religions and ideas. “This is freedom! This is freedom!”
Others didn’t agree with this definition of freedom.
“You wouldn’t get this in Beijing,” 75 year-old John Gump said of the protest. Gump, an American professor at a South Korean university, attended the protest to hear Anson Chan, the former chief secretary, speak. He had arrived in Hong Kong after a visit to Beijing where he saw an attempted protest broken up by the police.
Mrs Tsang was not convinced that Hong Kong and the mainland were as different as Mr Gump thought. “I’m scared!” she said as she handed out pro-democracy stickers.
Christian leaders had called for followers to attend the march.
“As a Christian, I am always obedient to the Church,” said Brother William, a young Franciscan monk. He emphasised that he would be protesting for universal suffrage even if the church leaders had not instructed him to do so.
The march was also about democracy in action, as protesters marched to show their numbers and make their voices heard. Though the protest was peaceful, crowd-control measures were strained as marchers relished a rare opportunity for the people to take control.
Police struggled to contain marchers in the narrow route that covered less than half the road, marked out with police tape and low metal barriers. A small group of protesters who had crossed over onto the restricted tram-lines called on others to follow. Soon, traffic was brought to a halt as the road was filled with protesters.
“We’re using our maximum resources but can’t contain them,” a police officer was overheard saying into his radio. “I can only speak to one person at a time to tell them to move, that is all.” Long before they had reached the battle-cry of “Po suen! Universal suffrage! Hong Kong people unite!” the people had embraced the message, and the officer’s one-by-one negotiations were futile.
After property tycoon Gordon Wu had dismissed the protests as “mob politics” and chief executive Donald Tsang’s televised plea for support for the constitutional reform package that sparked the protest, the marchers showed they would not submit to orders from above.
As the march turned into a sit-in at the Government headquarters, veteran democracy advocate Martin Lee spoke.
“Why, after the economic crisis, after Tung Chee-hwa resigned, are there still protests?”
Even with a better economy and a more popular Chief Executive, the protest was about more than just democracy.
“Like everyone else here, I’m hoping for universal suffrage,” said Richard Simmons, an assistant professor at Lingnan University.
But the march was about more than democracy. Banners proclaimed that “New China Begins when CCP vanishes.” People chanted “No more CCP.” Monks, nuns and normal Christians obeyed instruction from their religious leaders to attend.
Mr Wong, 75, and Mr Leung, 70, attended the protest together. “The Communists are not people. They are devils,” said Mr Wong, who blames the Communist Party for the death of his wife and children who died in poverty in the 1950s. “I want to get rid of the communist monsters.”
Mr Leung said that “we should capture the government, take them to China and let them stay there.”
The vice-chairman of a youth group waving Taiwanese flags said that they were out to support democracy in Hong Kong and that Taiwan should be a model. Their motives seemed to go beyond this. A young member said that they were waving the flags because “the Taiwanese government is the Chinese government.”
One elderly man, Zhou Zhou Wen, dissented from the anti-Communist sentiment. A red banner, topped with a Chinese flag, towered above him. Marchers heckled him and yelled insults. A passer-by shouted back at the marchers, pointing at the sign which denounced the worship of western religions and ideas. “This is freedom! This is freedom!”
Others didn’t agree with this definition of freedom.
“You wouldn’t get this in Beijing,” 75 year-old John Gump said of the protest. Gump, an American professor at a South Korean university, attended the protest to hear Anson Chan, the former chief secretary, speak. He had arrived in Hong Kong after a visit to Beijing where he saw an attempted protest broken up by the police.
Mrs Tsang was not convinced that Hong Kong and the mainland were as different as Mr Gump thought. “I’m scared!” she said as she handed out pro-democracy stickers.
Christian leaders had called for followers to attend the march.
“As a Christian, I am always obedient to the Church,” said Brother William, a young Franciscan monk. He emphasised that he would be protesting for universal suffrage even if the church leaders had not instructed him to do so.
The march was also about democracy in action, as protesters marched to show their numbers and make their voices heard. Though the protest was peaceful, crowd-control measures were strained as marchers relished a rare opportunity for the people to take control.
Police struggled to contain marchers in the narrow route that covered less than half the road, marked out with police tape and low metal barriers. A small group of protesters who had crossed over onto the restricted tram-lines called on others to follow. Soon, traffic was brought to a halt as the road was filled with protesters.
“We’re using our maximum resources but can’t contain them,” a police officer was overheard saying into his radio. “I can only speak to one person at a time to tell them to move, that is all.” Long before they had reached the battle-cry of “Po suen! Universal suffrage! Hong Kong people unite!” the people had embraced the message, and the officer’s one-by-one negotiations were futile.
After property tycoon Gordon Wu had dismissed the protests as “mob politics” and chief executive Donald Tsang’s televised plea for support for the constitutional reform package that sparked the protest, the marchers showed they would not submit to orders from above.
As the march turned into a sit-in at the Government headquarters, veteran democracy advocate Martin Lee spoke.
“Why, after the economic crisis, after Tung Chee-hwa resigned, are there still protests?”
Even with a better economy and a more popular Chief Executive, the protest was about more than just democracy.
If you really want to destroy the chances of democracy in Hong Kong, keep demonstrating.
Hong Kong is politically immature. No political parties (yes, yes, lots of little groups and the A45 bunch of corrupt lawyers), no statesmen, no, not one. Donald is a great number two but where is there a true leader?
Tomorrows leader is today at kindergarten.