Talks fail to narrow gap between student leaders and government
Chief secretary's vow during televised talks to submit report to Beijing reflecting public's views of 2017 poll framework fails to please protesters
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 21 October, 2014, 11:39pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 21 October, 2014, 11:39pm
Staff Reporters
Leaders from the Federation of Students meet Chief Secretary Carrie Lam and other government representatives in the city's first face-to-face dialogue between top officials and activists.Photo: K. Y. Cheng
The government and student leaders remained poles apart on how the city should elect its leader in 2017, after their televised meeting yesterday failed to resolve the issue that triggered the Occupy Central mass sit-ins.
Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said the government would submit a report to Beijing reflecting the latest public sentiment and would consider setting up a platform for dialogue on constitutional development, but that failed to please the five leaders from the Federation of Students.
Lam and fellow officials ruled out the possibility of reversing the National People's Congress Standing Committee's August decision imposing tight limits on the 2017 election. They also rejected the students' demand for public nomination of candidates.
Federation leaders told protesters after the meeting that they would not retreat from the protest sites as the government had not given any concrete response.
Lam said the government respected the students' passion in pursuing democracy, but added: "However respectful one's ideal is, it should be achieved by reasonable and lawful ways."
Tens of thousands of people at the protest sites in Admiralty, Causeway Bay and Mong Kok tuned in to the televised talks - the first face-to-face dialogue between top officials and activists in the city's history.
The talks received wide coverage in broadcasts by mainland and overseas news organisations. CCTV's 24-hour news channel ran a few minutes of the debate live. Sina.com ran a live text broadcast of officials', but not students' statements. Over two hours, both sides negotiated in a relatively cordial atmosphere.
Lam said the government would submit a report to the State Council's Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office to "reflect what had happened in Hong Kong and the concerns of different sectors" since the Standing Committee announced only two or three candidates could run and must win majority support from a 1,200-strong nominating committee.
Protesters watch the talks being broadcast live in Admiralty.
"The report will serve as a crucial reference for constitutional development in future and will be conducive to democratic development," she said.
The government would also explore the possibility of setting up a platform for dialogue among the government, students and other interested parties on constitutional development beyond 2017, she said.
Lam stressed arrangements for electing the city's leader could be amended after universal suffrage was attained in 2017. There was room to make the election more democratic within the restrictive framework, she said.
Hong Kong was not an independent entity, but only a special administrative region, she said. "It cannot decide on its own its political development."
At the end of the talks, Lam said they had been constructive. "There was no quarrel and no confrontation. I hope this is not the only time we meet."
The federation's deputy secretary general, Lester Shum, rejected Lam's calls for the protesters end their sit-in and accept Beijing's ruling.
"Have we not made enough concessions? So many young people … are even willing to go to jail," he said. "What do we want? The right to vote and the right to stand in election. Now the government is only telling us to pack up and go home."
Occupy co-organiser Benny Tai Yiu-ting said protesters would not accept the government's response.
The new report should be submitted to the NPC Standing Committee rather than the State Council so that it could retract its August decision, he said. And the dialogue platform should deal with reform for the 2017 poll, he added.
Protesters in Admiralty said submitting a new report raised more questions than answers.
"What kind of public opinions are you expecting Lam to include in the report," Siu Chi-yan, a second-year student at the Academy of Performing Arts, asked.
Tony Cheung, Jeffie Lam, Gary Cheung, Joyce Ng, Ng Kang-chung, Peter So and Amy Nip
