Chair of student-government talks pledges to remain impartial despite past CY Leung links
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 19 October, 2014, 2:01pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 19 October, 2014, 2:01pm
Staff Reporters
A protester shows police a newspaper report on last night's violence. Photo: SCMP
The university president chosen to chair talks between Hong Kong’s protesting students and the government today pledged to remain impartial during Tuesday’s meeting on democratic reform – despite the fact he was an adviser to CY Leung’s election campaign.
Lingnan University’s President Cheng Kwok-hon, who has been picked by the city’s eight universities to moderate the meeting, said his role would have “nothing to do with what I said in the past”.
“It is their freedom to say something for or against the Basic Law provisions,” he said, referring to the framework within which the 2017 chief executive elections would operate.
“I cannot stop them unless they say things to attack others or they violate the principles that are agreed before the meeting.”
His declaration came as Hong Kong’s Occupy protest zones remained peaceful on Sunday, following a night of violent clashes in Mong Kok that left 20 people injured.
A police presence ensured protesters could not reclaim lost ground. Photo: SCMP
Some 50 protesters were today manning the site in Mong Kok, where last night police used pepper spray and batons to control a crowd several hundred-strong.
Violence flared after midnight following an online call for protesters to block the junction of Argyle Street and Nathan Road.
While police this morning maintained that just three protesters and one policeman had been injured in the scuffles, the government put the figure at 20, according to AFP news agency.
Last night’s ugly scenes came as the Occupy demonstration, calling for increased democratic rights, entered its fourth week.
Despite diminished numbers of protesters on the streets – tens of thousands poured onto the city’s highways at the start of Occupy Central – the protests are continuing to make headlines around the world.
Protesters in protective gear manned the barricades last night. Photo: SCMP
Later today the Hong Kong Overseas Alliance (HKOA) will hold a rally in Green Park, London, to condemn what they say is an excessive use of force against the mainly young protesters.
A spokesman for the organisation, which attracted 4,000 people to a rally in support of Hong Kong outside the London’s Chinese Embassy on October 1, said the HKOA expressed its “deep regrets” over the police handling of the ongoing protests.
“The Hong Kong police are paid by the taxpayers to keep them safe not to bully them. These days, many Hongkongers have been calling Hong Kong police ‘public security police’ - that is the mainland Chinese police who are known to be heavy-handed with their own people,” the organisation said in a statement.
Hong Kong Labour Party member Cyd Ho said on RTHK’s Letter to Hong Kong this morning that the Occupy movement had been successful in giving Hongkongers a greater appetite for politics, which would continue even after the protest zones finally vanish.
In Mong Kok this afternoon, the junction of Nathan Road and Argyle Street remained under the watchful eye of police officers, who reclaimed it from protesters in a major operation on Friday.
A line of police in Mong Kok await instructions. Photo: SCMP
For some the mood was one of despondency, with several admitting they did not hold out hope that talks between the Federation of Students and the government would be productive.
Pitt Butt, 26, who spent Saturday night at the site, said he thought the meeting would come to nothing, and voiced his concerns about the policing methods employed in recent days.
"I was here last night and the police were hitting the protesters on their heads and arms with their batons. But the protesters were not doing anything.
"The police are like strangers to me now. I never thought that they could do such things to the people."
Graduate of Lingnan University, Kwok Hin, 20, said he had no faith in the host of Tuesday’s debate.
"I still remember that when some people stormed inside the Civic Square last month, there were Lingnan students among them. But the president did not say if the university would help bail them out," said Kwok, 20.
In Admiralty about 300 tents remained in the Occupy zone. Families wandered among the tents talking to protesters.
Frank Lee, 37, who works in the education sector, had decided to take his three-year-old daughter to the site.
"I support the students, their views and stances, and decided to bring her - even though she might not understand much - to make her aware of what's going on and take some iconic photos," he said, adding that the violence seen in recent days could only be halted with appropriate political action.
"It's not up to the students or even the police. After all, the ultimate responsibility belongs to the government, I mean to CY Leung. This can only be solved by political means,” he said.
