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Officials' dire warnings about Occupy protests aren't borne out by the realities
Peter Kammerer says the overblown warning about Occupy's damage to our economy and image only hurts the government's credibility
Peter Kammerer
Tourism numbers, retail sales and property transactions have not been affected by the protests. Photo: AFP
Occupied streets and protesting students are all to do with my job, but nothing to do with my everyday life. My home, office and places that need to be visited have all been far removed from the trouble spots. Yet there I was recently on holiday in Australia, with Hong Kong seemingly of the utmost interest to all who learned where I live. Through their media connectivity, I was kept informed up to the minute of what was taking place, despite my efforts to switch off.
"Those students who are protesting have a lot of guts," the woman who helped me to the city shuttle bus opined shortly after I arrived at Brisbane airport. The receptionist at the hotel I was checking into looked up from the registration form I had just filled out and said: "That was a terrible murder in Wan Chai, wasn't it?" There were similar comments throughout my two-week stay; the awareness of ordinary people about events in a city that I would have thought of little or no interest to them was astonishing. Since returning, I've heard similar accounts from work colleagues and friends who have been on trips to other countries, the theme being that the world isn't as small, insular and uninformed as some officials make it out to be.
Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah has been on the frontlines of the anti-Occupy bandwagon, warning that the demonstrations will have dire consequences for Hong Kong's economy. Just over 10 weeks since they began, there is no sign of such an impact; there has been an economic slowdown, but that is Asia-wide and cannot be specifically put down to the protests. Contrary to his previous predictions, the Hang Seng index has been largely unaffected, while tourism numbers, retail sales and property transactions are up. Some shops near protest zones have undoubtedly suffered, as have the bus, tram and taxi companies - but there are also some among such firms which have benefited through being innovative.
The internet means that reality is just a click or two away. Hong Kong's success is based on open borders, a free market and high-quality infrastructure. Most of us carry smartphones and those wanting specific information have no difficulty finding it, especially when the story is hot. For officials to tell a different version of events to those that others see and hear is to harm their credibility and damage faith in the city they are governing.
I am no supporter of the way the students have gone about their campaign. People should be able to govern themselves, but attaining that aim has to first be done through lobbying, negotiations and finding a common path. If these fail to bear fruit after years, perhaps decades, then there is reason to resort to more forceful measures. Breaking the law by blocking roads, stopping the government from doing its business, barring customers from shops and taking up makeshift weapons are harmful, not beneficial, to their cause.
But law-breakers or not, it is wrong to contend that the protesters are damaging Hong Kong's business environment and image. The packed aircraft flying from Brisbane anecdotally told me that. The support voiced for the "plucky protesters" and the financial data confirmed it.
Mong Kok witnessed clashes during a two-month long occupation. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
A man who brandished a bottle of paint thinner and a lighter as he threatened to burn pro-democracy demonstrators in Mong Kok was jailed for six months in Kowloon City Court yesterday.
Ma Hei-yuk, 45, pleaded guilty to one count of behaving in a disorderly manner in a public place.
Handing down the sentence, Magistrate Peter Law Tak-chuen said: "Your act was reckless and very dangerous. You could imagine serious harm could have been done to lots of people and the situation could have been out of your control. The consequences could have been horrible."
But Law took into account the fact that the incident happened during the Occupy Central protests, and that there was no end in sight to the sit-ins at the time.
"The incident took place on October 22 - the protest had been going on for some time. No matter where you stand on politics, this movement was causing distress and there was no light at the end of the tunnel," Law said.
"I can understand that emotions were running high at that time."
The magistrate said he had considered handing Ma a one-year prison term - the maximum sentence for the charge - but reduced it to six months after taking into account that Ma had admitted his guilt, his personal background and that of the case.
Ma admitted he had taken a bottle of paint thinner to the Mong Kok Occupy site on the evening of October 22, saying that he wanted to teach protesters a lesson. He dropped the bottle of paint thinner, holding a lighter in his hand, and saying he wanted to "die together" with the people there, but he was subdued by bystanders.
Ma was born on the mainland and is now a Hong Kong resident. He told the court he had been drunk and distressed by the civil disobedience movement that night after reading the news. He did not live in Mong Kok but said he wanted to teach the "troublemakers" a lesson.
He wrote a letter to the magistrate yesterday, saying he had reflected on his actions and greatly regretted what he had done, and hoped he could be released soon.
Bailiffs and police cleared the Mong Kok Occupy site on November 25, acting on court injunctions to remove obstacles blocking transport businesses, and ending some two months of occupation there.
Scholarism's Joshua Wong Chi-fung gives a news conference during his hunger strike. He called off the fast after 108 hours without food. Photo: AP
On Saturday, Hong Kong student activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung, of the group Scholarism, ended a hunger strike he had initiated in an attempt to force a dialogue with the government. His fast lasted 108 hours.
Hunger strikes have been used by a wide variety of political dissidents in a number of countries, with mixed success. While Gandhi was something of a master at holding his own body hostage to extract concessions from his opponents, other hunger strikers often had to pay a high price for victory, if it came at all.
Mohandas Gandhi
A photo taken of Mohandas Gandhi during a fast in 1924. Photo: Wikipedia
During the fight for Indian independence, Mohandas “Mahatma” Gandhi often used fasting as a form of non-violent resistance. Between 1913 and 1948, he went on hunger strike a staggering 17 times, with the longest fast lasting 21 days.
Due to his stature and popularity, Gandhi’s fasts were successful both in attracting international media attention and forcing action from those he sought to pressure.
In 1932, he went on hunger strike to protest a British proposal to separate India’s electoral system by caste, giving the so-called “untouchables” their own separate political representation for a period of 70 years.
“This is a god-given opportunity that has come to me to offer my life as final sacrifice to the downtrodden,” Gandhi said, vowing to “fast until death” unless the plan, which he felt would permanently divide India’s social classes, was dropped.
After a six-day fast, a settlement was reached and the separation decision was reversed.
As his influence and notoriety grew, Gandhi increasingly turned to fasting as a way to settle disputes, even after independence. Due to his popularity with Indians of all religions, hunger strikes often proved effective in stopping the inter-communal violence which surrounded India and Pakistan’s eventual split and independence.
Gandhi fasted three times between 1943 and 1948 to call for unity between Muslims and Hindus in Delhi, including one hunger strike which lasted 21 days.
Gandhi started his last fast on January 12, 1948, again against inter-communal riots in the Indian capital. After six days without food, faith and political leaders agreed to meet and discuss peace in the city. But soon after ending his fast, Gandhi was shot and killed by a Hindu extremist.
Emmeline Pankhurst
Suffragette leader and hunger striker Emmeline Pankhurst. Photo: Public Domain
One of the leaders of the British suffragette movement who helped women win the right to vote, Emmeline Pankhurst and her comrades often used hunger strikes as a form of protest against the British establishment, particularly during periods of imprisonment.
After the hunger strike was approved by Pankhurst’s Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) as a form of resistance, Marion Wallace Dunlop, imprisoned for writing an excerpt from the Bill of Rights on a wall in parliament, began fasting to protest conditions in prison.
When this proved effective, other imprisoned members of the WSPU took up the tactic.
Suffragette hunger strikers were often subjected to horrific force-feedings, during which steel gags were used to hold the mouth open and a plastic tube was inserted down their gullet. The tactic caused a split between Pankhurst’s group and more moderate suffrage organisations, who denounced fasting as mere publicity stunts.
A contemporary poster depicts a suffragette being force fed while in prison. Photo: Public Domain
Pankhurst was arrested in 1912 and imprisoned in Holloway Prison, where she personally staged her first hunger strike and was force-fed.
“Holloway became a place of horror and torment. Sickening scenes of violence took place almost every hour of the day, as the doctors went from cell to cell performing their hideous office,” she wrote in her autobiography.
After parliament passed the so-called “Cat and Mouse Act”, suffragettes undertaking hunger strikes were released from prison as soon as they became ill, and re-imprisoned after their health improved. Though it was intended to reduce the public relations fallout from force-feeding fasting prisoners, the illiberality of the act led to widespread outrage and loss of support for the Liberal government.
The Representation of the People Act, passed in 1918, was the first British law to give women a limited right to vote. They would not achieve the same franchise as men until 1928.
Bobby Sands
Actor Michael Fassbender as Bobby Sands in Hunger. Fassbender lost 16kg to play the Irish republican hunger striker. Photo: Film4
A member of the militant Provisional Irish Republican Army, Bobby Sands was the leader of a 1981 hunger strike by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland, during which 10 participants starved to death in succession.
Protests broke out in prisons across Northern Ireland in 1976 when the British government removed Special Category Status for convicted paramilitary prisoners. Prior to this, republican prisoners had been classed as something akin to prisoners of war, granting them special privileges compared with regular criminals.
Violence broke out between prisoners and guards, and in 1978 a “dirty protest” was launched, in which prisoners refused to wash and covered the walls of their cells with excrement. This escalated in 1980 to a hunger strike in which seven prisoners took part, demanding the restoration of many of the rights granted by Special Category Status.
That strike ended after 53 days when the British government released a settlement proposal which appeared to concede to prisoners’ demands. However, no further action was taken and on March 1, 1981, prisoners resumed the strike when Bobby Sands refused food.
Five days into the strike, Sands was elected to the House of Commons through a by-election, leading many to hope that a settlement could be negotiated, as he was now a Member of Parliament.
British prime minister Margaret Thatcher refused to reconsider the removal of Special Category Status for paramilitary prisoners, saying: “Crime is crime is crime, it is not political.”
The government’s resolve did not waver even as Sands approached death. “If Mr Sands persisted in his wish to commit suicide, this was his choice. The government would not force medical treatment on him,” Northern Ireland minister Humphrey Atkins said.
Sands died on May 5, 1981, after 66 days of fasting. In the weeks following his death, three more striking prisoners died, prompting criticism from the Republic of Ireland government over the British government’s handling of the protests. In all, 10 hunger strikers died before the strike was called off on October 3.
Three days later, the new Northern Ireland minister James Prior announced partial concessions.
Though widely seen as a victory for the Thatcher government at the time, the hunger strikes marked the emergence of Sinn Fein as an electoral force in Northern Ireland.
Guantanamo Bay prisoners
A display of the restraint chair that the Navy medics use to tube-feed hunger strikers at the US Navy base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Photo: TNS
Since 2005, many prisoners at the US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have carried out hunger strikes in protest at their detention without trial. Information about prisoners is not widely available and it is unclear how many have taken part or are taking part in fasts and for how long.
In mid-2005, at least 50 detainees went on hunger strike to protest their imprisonment and conditions. During this time, human rights agencies say that fasting prisoners were force-fed via a tube inserted through their nose into their stomach.
The initial strike ended after 26 days when prison authorities agreed to bring standards at the camp into compliance with the Geneva Conventions in July 2005.
However, by September, The New York Times reported that as many as 200 prisoners, or one-third of the camp, were again on hunger strike, with as many as 20 being force-fed.
“We will not let them starve themselves to the point of causing harm to themselves,” camp spokesman Major Jeffrey Weir told the paper.
In December 2005, the military reported that there were 84 hunger strikers taking part in the protest. By April 2008, after a large number of prisoners were repatriated or transferred to other jurisdictions, The New Yorker reported that there were only 10 prisoners still on hunger strike.
A new wave of hunger strikes began last year. By July, 106 of 166 detainees were participating, with 45 of them being force-fed, according to prisoners’ lawyers. The military disputed this number, saying only 21 men were taking part in the strike.
Following widespread media attention, including a video in which actor and musician Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def) underwent force-feeding, the US military announced in December last year that it would no longer release information about hunger strikes. The last figures released showed there were 15 strikers, all of whom were being tube-fed.
Rear Admiral Kyle Cozad, who oversees Guantanamo, admitted to Agence-France Presse last month that force-feeding was still occurring. He defended the practice on the grounds of medical necessity.
“I have no moral or ethical issue with it,” Cozad said.
Police officers clearing the barricades in the Mong Kok occupied area last month. Photo: AP
As the world's attention has turned to what some call the "umbrella revolution" in Hong Kong, it is worth looking at the historical context.
Thirty years ago, when Deng Xiaoping was negotiating with Margaret Thatcher over the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty, the territory was seen as a prized asset. Not only would a deal add this thriving commercial city to China's territory as it was digging itself out of decades of turmoil under Mao Zedong , but it would also signal the end of a long period of colonialism and unequal treaties.
Deng's pledge to retain the essential character of the territory for at least 50 years was critical both to Britain's interests, and even more so to those of the people of Hong Kong itself.
Much has changed since then. China's dramatic emergence on the global economic scene somewhat diminishes the role of Hong Kong today, though it remains a thriving business and financial hub with unparalleled international links.
Yet Beijing's leaders seem increasingly concerned about the negative spillover effect on China's restless masses of a city where individual freedoms hold sway in a way that they do not across the border. With tens of millions of mainland Chinese tourists visiting the city each year, Beijing now has to worry that they may be bringing home with them dangerous new ideas.
It is in this context that President Xi Jinping decided to deny the aspirations of those in Hong Kong advocating genuine universal suffrage in the selection of the next chief executive in 2017.
As someone who grew very fond of the people of Hong Kong during my recent tenure as US consul general there, it saddens me to see their aspirations thwarted by a tone-deaf leadership to the north. But I am not surprised.
The Communist Party continues to delude itself that more than three decades of economic advancement need not be accompanied by any real expansion of political freedom. In so doing, it ignores the trend towards greater political openness followed by so many of its Asian neighbours, like South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines and Indonesia.
Beijing has also recently turned up its objection to criticism of its treatment of Hong Kong by the international community, particularly targeting Britain and the US. It claims that this is interference in China's internal affairs.
Yet, 30 years ago, China and the UK formally lodged their joint agreement on Hong Kong's return in the United Nations, precisely because they wanted global support for their agreement and its promises.
Therefore, it is perfectly natural today for the international community to demonstrate its support for Hong Kong's continued special status.
There is much to admire about Hong Kong and its unique status as a special administrative region of China. The rule of law, free press, tradition of peaceful protest, and many other freedoms, have all become enduring characteristics of this special city, though events of the past several days are threatening to diminish their sparkle.
For now, however, Beijing's conservative leadership seems determined to set definite new limits on the promise of "one country, two systems" as it applies to Hong Kong. This sends a very negative signal to the millions of Hongkongers who took China at its word in the run-up to the 1997 turnover.
It sends a cautionary note to the 23 million citizens of Taiwan, who have also been considering closer ties to mainland China, but are understandably sceptical that Beijing leaders' promises can be trusted. It is also a blow to the many people in China who had hoped economic success would be followed by a greater voice for them.
The world must make it very clear to Beijing's leaders that we are watching what they are doing to Hong Kong today.
We must hold them accountable for their actions to undermine Hong Kong's desire for a representative government whose leaders they can choose themselves.
Ambassador Stephen M. Young (retired) was US consul general to Hong Kong from 2010 to 2013. These views are his own and do not represent those of the US government
Occupy protesters gather on Tim Mei outside the Central Government Offices in Tamar on September 27. Photo: Felix Wong
The Legislative Council may seek a court injunction to clear the protesters occupying parts of the Legco complex, Legco President Jasper Tsang Yok-sing said on Monday.
The areas affected include the complex’s car park entrance on Tim Mei Avenue, and the area previously designated to be a protest zone near the complex’s public entrance.
The proposal is under consideration after a legal adviser said the government had valid grounds to apply for the injunction, but Tsang said the decision would only be made after consulting lawmakers – but some pan-democratic legislators have already voiced out opposition.
Speaking after a meeting of the Legco Commission earlier today, Tsang said protesters have disturbed the work of lawmakers.
“We will prepare a document illustrating the legal grounds of applying for such an injunction and what factors to consider… and this document will be disclosed to the public and all lawmakers,” said Tsang.
Legco President Jasper Tsang said protesters would be prevented from storming the Legco building again, and that the assistance of police would be sought as necessary. Photo: Nora Tam
In October, Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying postponed a question-and-answer session in the Legislative Council because of ongoing pro-democracy protests outside government offices in Tamar. Leung has yet to say when he would next attend any future session there.
Civic Party’s Alan Leong Kah-kit and Democratic Party’s Emily Lau Wai-hing opposed the proposal of applying for the injunction.
“We [the legislature] are representing the public. It’s unthinkable to [try to] prohibit the public from entering the building,” said Leong. Lau also said it would be a waste of public money to apply for an injunction.
While the police are expected to clear the main Occupy zone in Admiralty later this week, Tsang said protesters would be prevented from storming the Legco building again, and that the assistance of police would be sought as necessary.
The Legco Commission also decided to prohibit visitors from using the shower facilities in the Legco building, after some lawmakers were accussed of bringing guests into the building, and turning it into a command centre for the Occupy movement.
Separately, Ricky Chu, secretary-general of the Independent Police Complaints Council said this afternoon that it had yet to decide whether to send its members to monitor the police while the force carried out clearance operations in Admiralty later in the week.
Chu said a decision might be made on Wednesday if the police could provide more details of the operation.
Re: Hong Kong Students indefinite hunger strike secrets revealed
The final push: police finalise plans to clear Hong Kong streets of Occupy protesters
Thursday is likely target day for thousands of officers to clear remaining Admiralty and Causeway Bay sites after 72 days of occupation
Police officers remove the barricades on Queensway in Admiralty. Photo: Sam Tsang
Over 3,000 police officers could be deployed to clear the biggest Occupy camp in Admiralty and the protest zone in Causeway Bay on the same day this week, according to police sources.
The clearance is likely to take place on Thursday. Details of the operation will be finalised after a meeting with a plaintiff and bailiffs today, one police source said yesterday.
"Police will clear the entire [Admiralty] site, including areas that are not covered in the injunction order," the source said. "We aim to clear all occupied roads and reopen traffic."
It is likely that police will hold a press conference this afternoon to appeal to activists to leave the protest zones. "Police will then give protesters some time to pack their belongings and leave the sites before officers move in," the source said.
He added that police would also clear the Causeway Bay site on the same day, if possible. Police recently estimated that the number of protesters remaining in Causeway Bay was less than 50.
Separately, Legislative Council staff handed out notices to protesters asking them to leave the area around the council building as soon as possible, another sign that action might be imminent.
The clearance plan was revealed yesterday after Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying warned on Sunday that "furious resistance" is expected from some protesters at the Admiralty sit-in site during the clearance - a move which may bring an end to the occupation which has lasted for more than 70 days.
"Appropriate force will be used if protesters storm police cordons, put up resistance and refuse to cooperate," he said.
But he stressed that, if necessary, the use of batons would be considered to disperse unruly protesters.
Some debris remains on the road in Admiralty after protesters left the areas covered by the injunction. Photo: Nora Tam
It is understood police will deploy more than 1,000 officers to clear the Admiralty camp and another 2,000 officers will be on standby.
Another police source said that after the clearance operations, officers will be stationed at both locations to prevent any attempt to reoccupy the areas. Currently, more than 1,000 officers are deployed to Mong Kok each night to block protesters from reoccupying the former Mong Kok protest site that was cleared last month.
When asked whether police expected violence from protesters, the second source said: "Police are prepared for all possible eventualities."
Lawmaker Paul Tse Wai-chun, solicitor for Kwoon Chung Bus Holdings subsidiary All China Express, said his client, who got a sealed order from the court yesterday, would hold a meeting with bailiffs today to discuss further actions and may post the order at the injunction area.
The injunction covers the occupied Connaught Road Central, Harcourt Road and Cotton Tree Drive, which is roughly one-fifth of the protest area in Admiralty
Scholarism's convenor Joshua Wong Chi-fung said the student group would arrange for secondary school pupils and elderly people to leave the Admiralty site for their safety if police started clearing the area.
Wong said the group had no plans to clash with police, and urged protesters not to throw any objects at officers or attack them. But he suggested protesters bring home-made shields to protect themselves from batons.
Last night, Scholarism member Eddie Ng Man-hin ended his hunger strike after nearly 120 hours. Gloria Cheng Yik-lam is the only member to continue her hunger strike, demanding dialogue with government officials.
Yesterday, no protester was seen camping in Admiralty areas covered by the injunction. All that remained was some construction waste and four roadblocks from outside City Hall on Connaught Road Central to the section of Cotton Tree Drive next to the Lippo Centre.
Additional reporting by Thomas Chan
Re: Hong Kong Students indefinite hunger strike secrets revealed
Green activists happy to pick up the pieces after Occupy protests
Small but dedicated band collect the mountains of rubbish left by the Occupy movement, and recycle what they can to help the environment
Celia Fung battles with more than 1,000 plastic bottles left by protesters outside government headquarters in Tamar. Photo: Sam Tsang
With their bare hands, Celia Fung Sze-lai and her friends spend hours shredding foam lunch boxes into small flakes at the Occupy area outside the legislature. They then stuff the pieces into bags to make pillows for protesters still camping in Admiralty.
"No worries, the boxes have all been cleaned. But there might still be traces of grease left behind," she quipped.
Since the movement began more than two months ago, Fung and her friends have dropped in a few times a week. They are not there to protest, but to protect - the environment, that is.
The international media highlighted how disciplined the Hong Kong protesters had been about clearing their rubbish, but Fung belongs to a small, behind-the-scenes army of volunteers that also deserves credit.
They know that in a movement which involved more than 100,000 people on the streets at one point, not everybody was as civic-minded about their litter.
This is where Fung and company come in. She remembers the night after the tear gas incident on September 28. Fung observed the melee quietly from a distance. When the crowd retreated, the remains of that fateful night were hers for the sorting and clearing.
"I was furiously scavenging. You could find everything, you name it. Heaps of plastic bottles - mostly still more than half-filled, and unfinished or untouched meals in takeaway foam boxes," she recalled.
Fung confessed she could not help but get upset with those who left behind their rubbish, no matter how sympathetic she was to the movement.
She picked up most of the items scattered on the roads, and wheeled them to a temporary shelter. That shed is now bursting at the seams. It is the depository for hundreds of abandoned umbrellas, countless rolls of plastic wrap, piles of used or new towels, boxes of baking soda and other assorted items.
It is also a makeshift recycling and repair workshop where volunteers sort out the aluminium frames of broken umbrellas from the linen. Some of these frames were turned into a sculpture, and detergents made from discarded fruit skins have also been produced.
On the night of September 29, Fung recalled a police officer approaching her. She thought she was about to be chastised. Instead, he offered help. "I told him I was trying to save these materials. A moment later, he came back with a cart he had found abandoned in a pile of rubbish. He also handed me a bottle of water and told me this was the only thing he could do for me."
Polytechnic University alumni make sleeping mats out of old T-shirts. Photo: Sam Tsang
During the first few days of the Occupy movement, nearly 1,000 bags of rubbish were left uncleared near City Hall, as government cleaners claimed they could not get to the roads cordoned off by the protesters.
Fung and her friends took on the unpleasant task of untying the bags and sorting out recyclable materials. It was a race against time, she said, before the rubbish trucks moved in.
"We have occasionally appealed to the organisers to remind the protesters about the importance of saving resources. While we are fighting for democracy, this is something we should not turn a blind eye to," she said.
A former campaigner for Friends of the Earth, Fung quit her job months ago to champion her cause of recycling waste. She and two friends founded the Facebook group "End dumping all in one bin" - a slogan modified from a politically sensitive chant on ending Communist Party rule. Within four months, the group received over 4,500 likes.
"We are actually a loose collection of people, not even a group. But we are so sick of the current deadlock [on waste management] that we feel obliged to do something about it," she said.
She believes firmly that at a time when the government had been distracted and thus ineffective in tackling green issues, more volunteers should step forward.
"Please ask yourself what you have done before you grumble about what the government failed to do. In fact, the more one relies on the government, the more one becomes apathetic," she said.
The figures are sobering. Hong Kong's per capita waste disposal at 0.87kg per day is higher than that of Seoul at 0.35kg, and Taipei's 0.41kg. Yet, there is a lack of financial incentive, unlike in those two cities.
Activists noted that in the initial weeks of the Occupy movement, there was no shortage of supporters helping to clean and collect recyclables. Their enthusiasm has waned, lamented Lam Tsz-ching, a co-founder of "End dumping all in one bin".
At first, volunteers - mostly students - were seen tirelessly sweeping the area, moving bags of rubbish aside or urging visitors to crush their cans and remove the lids of their plastic bottles before discarding them. Their actions moved commentators, some of whom called them the "most civilised demonstrators in the world".
The protesters have thinned out, so have these self-appointed "cleaners".
"Many of those who helped have gone already," said Lam.
Still, Lam said their efforts had made a difference. The Occupy organisers had taken on board more ideas, such as regular collection of recyclables, from their group.
But it is an uphill challenge. "Some visitors helped to collect rubbish but came back with bags of mixed rubbish. Some still regard our station as a final disposal site and dumped them in front of us. I was quite mad and made a drama out of it by splashing the rubbish out on a corridor with a note asking for the owners to show up and reclaim it," she said.
"And then I had a heated debate on democracy and environment with four youngsters camping in front of the rubbish. All they wanted was to clear the rubbish - just some old newspapers and plastic bottles - as quickly as possible," she added.
Before their current mission, Lam and Fung were behind the move to seal rubbish bins at the annual July 1 rally in a bid to make it a green event. Instead, they placed separate bags at some points to get people to dump their recyclable waste.
Now, the next big impetus is when the protesters withdraw from the sites, which may happen as early as this week.
Fung said: "When the site is cleared, many will have no time to pack and inevitably a lot will be left behind."
Her main hope: that all the protesters' items can be rescued and reused again.
And then? She said: "It would be great if someone could just loan us a place to keep them."
Huge protest banners block a main road along with tents set up by pro-democracy protesters outside the government headquarters at Admiralty in Hong Kong December 8, 2014. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
By Farah Master
HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hong Kong's High Court has ordered the main protest sites that have choked the financial city for more than two months to be cleared, building up to a final showdown between pro-democracy activists and authorities backed by Beijing.
A local bus company, which was granted an injunction against street blockades at the site in Admiralty, home to government offices and next to the main Central business district, has received an official clearance order from the High Court, according to notices posted in local papers on Tuesday.
Student groups have been calling for a free vote in the Chinese controlled city through largely peaceful demonstrations dubbed the "Umbrella Movement".
Chief Executive C.Y. Leung, who has branded the protests illegal, has rejected calls for more talks on political reform and warned protesters not to turn to violence when the clearance starts.
Splinter protest groups calling for democracy for Hong Kong are springing up and fast-tracking action plans as student-led demonstrators consider a retreat from the main protest site which has blocked key downtown arteries since the end of September.
Police are expected to clear the sites on Thursday with over 3,000 officers, the South China Morning Post newspaper reported, citing police sources.
Protesters on the ground have thinned considerably to under 100 with most of the hundreds of tents pitched on the camp site empty. At their peak, the rallies drew more than 100,000.
Clashes between protesters and police increased at the end of November after the clearance of protest sites in the densely populated working-class district of Mong Kok district, on the Kowloon side of Hong Kong harbour.
One man was jailed for six months on Monday for threatening to burn Mong Kok demonstrators with paint thinner, media said on Monday.
Hong Kong, a former British colony, returned to China in 1997. Under a "one country, two systems" formula, the city has some autonomy from the Communist Party-ruled mainland and a promise of eventual universal suffrage.
Beijing has allowed a vote in the next election in 2017, but insists on screening any candidates first.
Student groups have been considering a retreat from the main campsite for over a week with key leader Joshua Wong saying his group would maintain the principle of non-violence during the clearance of the Admiralty site.
The Hong Kong bus company All China Express which published details on the injunction is expected to hold a meeting with court bailiffs on Tuesday to discuss further actions.
(Reporting by Farah Master; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
Hong Kong is crying out for a compassionate and competent leader. Whatever happens to constitutional reform, we don't deserve another Donald Tsang. Photo: Reuters
By now, popular support for the Occupy Movement has melted away. After two noisy months, its chokepoints have exacted a painful price on the retail and transport sectors. The tide is turning.
When it began, some cab drivers would ferry passengers to the occupied areas for free - until the occupation began to eat into their livelihood.
Tactically, the government's approach of waiting it out has worked. Student organisers, seeing the writing on the wall, have resorted to increasingly desperate moves to keep the movement alive. Scholarism's Joshua Wong Chi-fung, who tasted victory in the campaign against national education, is eager for an encore. But the government won't budge, and Wong can't win.
But the government cannot afford to gloat. The ugly factors that have fuelled the movement are still festering.
It is good to see that the Commission on Poverty has swung into action to address social grievances. Livelihood-obsessed Hongkongers are notoriously apolitical. They may not hanker for messy democracy per se, but they do yearn for good government and a fair society.
People returning from living overseas lament the loss of the old Hong Kong, celebrated globally as the most freewheeling place on earth for entrepreneurship. A decade of pampering the super-rich has tilted the scales against the rest of society.
Former chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, known for hobnobbing with tycoons, is as notorious for his expensive wine collection, sold upon leaving office, as he is for a series of disastrous moves that fundamentally altered our universe. He suspended land auctions, discontinued the building of public housing and curtailed the construction of the Home Ownership Scheme, artificially driving up property prices well beyond the reach of the middle class.
While decrying Hong Kong's narrow tax base, Tsang's government nevertheless saw fit to drop the import duty on wine, rescinded the inheritance tax, cut profit tax rates, and gifted custody of the Mandatory Provident Fund to banks and financial institutions. With rent spiralling out of control, every budding entrepreneur is now working for their landlord.
Years ago, the government used to sing the tune that young people should go into business for themselves. But these days, who can afford to? Most commercial leases run for three years - the first year is a money-loser; the second, a break-even year. By the third year, at the first sign of profitability, the landlord slaps an obscene rent hike that drives people out of business. The entrepreneur's dream is no more.
In the sad satellite towns of Tuen Mun and Tin Shui Wai, government town planners failed to include wet markets which would have provided hundreds of jobs for local residents trapped in poverty, forcing them to pay through the nose at one of two tycoon-owned supermarkets.
School social workers will tell you that many students from poor but proud families have never been to Central, much less occupied it, as they can't even afford the bus fare into the city. These are the lost souls in this filthy-rich city, where wealth disparities are among the most severe in the world.
While mainlanders are busy chasing the China Dream, the Hong Kong Dream is dead, killed by self-serving and short-sighted decision-makers. Job creation schemes for young people won't be much of a cure or correction. Having a job that barely keeps the wolf from the door can hardly qualify as upward social mobility. Who can see a future living in an exploited city touted as having the freest economy in the world, but that is, in fact, a pseudo-free market - free for business tycoons, but not for the rest of us?
No anti-poverty measures can work without factoring in rental affordability, both residential and commercial. Perhaps the government should go on a hawker licence issuing spree to give the young and poor a new lease of life, to break the near-monopoly of big businesses. At least they can operate rent-free. This city must find its old magic when even street hawkers and itinerant vendors could climb out of poverty. We need deliverance from rental slavery.
Education was once a path out of poverty. But the poor have been priced out of quality schools. A dysfunctional school curriculum unanchored by a study of history is now reaping the bitter fruit of a generation of youngsters ignorant of their own country, and indifferent to the world. Despite their activism, the youthful protesters are trapped in their own narrow corner, unconcerned about the past and unprepared for the future. They are misfits within a rising China and a shrinking world.
Hong Kong is crying out for a compassionate and competent leader. Whatever happens to constitutional reform, even if we can't get a Lee Kuan Yew, we don't deserve another Donald Tsang.
Philip Yeung is a former speechwriter to the president of HKUST and co-founder of the Hong Kong Society for the Promotion of English. [email protected]
Re: Hong Kong Students indefinite hunger strike secrets revealed
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 09 December, 2014, 11:47am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 09 December, 2014, 6:26pm
Lack of political upward mobility is the real problem
Richard Wong
Generational conflict offers the optimistic message of eventual triumph by the young. Photo: Sam Tsang
Political activism by young people in Hong Kong is often explained as a conflict between an older generation primarily interested in economic comforts and a younger generation more concerned with democratic ideals and social justice.
This is what I call the radical democratic narrative. Generational conflict, an old idea, offers the optimistic message of eventual triumph by the young and the fulfilment of radical democratic hopes.
But for this narrative to be correct, the activists must stick with their convictions into old age. There is as yet no strong research or good theory to suggest this happens.
The counter narrative advanced by the establishment is that political activism is the consequence of young people’s downward economic mobility (or lack of upward economic mobility), a recent phenomenon in Hong Kong.
The proposed policy remedy is a youth policy to alleviate downward economic mobility.
I find the establishment narrative also seriously unconvincing.
Youth downward economic mobility is merely part of a general phenomenon of rising poverty and inequality that has been on going in Hong Kong and most other industrialised economies for the past 20 to 40 years. Just exactly how much downward mobility there is in Hong Kong has not even been properly measured.
Real median household income has been stagnant since the 1990s, even though real gross domestic product per worker has continued to rise at about 3.8 per cent a year (see chart).
Low- and middle-income individuals in Hong Kong have been particularly affected, prompting worries that the socio-economic woes will worsen. Hong Kong is not unique in this. Youth downward economic mobility is only one manifestation of a more general problem.
It is not obvious to me that our government recognises the full complexity of our economic situation. Nor do I believe the problem has been sufficiently well researched. There are at least seven areas of concern:
First, our service economy brings wealth to the few and sinks the middle class that is the bedrock of workable, democratic political institutions.
Second, land usage and property redevelopment have not changed in step with Hong Kong’s transition into a service economy and this is holding back economic development and rejuvenation.
Third, our education system is not producing the right mix of graduates for our economy.
Fourth, rapidly ageing demographic trends point to almost zero-growth in the working age population from now until the end of the century. We need to totally revise our human capital investment approach to address the shortfall, including immigration policy.
Fifth, the proportion of single parent families has been rising rapidly, especially among low-income families, due to very high divorce rates, with long-term detrimental effects likely for many young people.
Sixth, early childhood policy intervention measures to help the underprivileged, especially those aged below six, are falling seriously short.
And seventh, these factors cannot be addressed unless our political and governance processes regain effectiveness and legitimacy. This means reforming the present method for electing the Chief Executive and the legislators, and getting the executive and legislative branches of government to work together again.
Although Hong Kong has problems of rising poverty, growing inequality and a sinking middle class, it is general dissatisfaction with the effectiveness of government and the political process that is fuelling political activism. Compared with other industrialised economies, Hong Kong is doing quite well economically, with the unemployment rate staying in the low single digits for a long time.
I believe the relationship between political activism and youth downward mobility is not direct. What Hong Kong urgently needs to address is not economic upward mobility, but political upward mobility so we can get on with the normal business of governing and dealing with the many social and economic challenges that we face.
Is there a generational conflict? Maybe, but it is most likely exaggerated. Is youth downward economic mobility causing political radicalisation? Maybe, but the lack of political upward mobility is more to the point.
Richard Wong Yue-chim is Philip Wong Kennedy Wong Professor in Political Economy at the University of Hong Kong
The current social and political situations do not warrant methods of change whereby everyone has to pay a high price. Photo: Bloomberg
Walking past the Occupy Central site in Admiralty, one can easily find banners around the site decrying soaring property prices and a growing wealth gap, which reflect some of the grievances of the protesters.
Some believe a reconstruction of the political system will encourage public participation in policymaking. But I doubt the global phenomenon of the widening wealth gap can be solved by so-called "genuine" universal suffrage.
At the outset of the movement, protesters' disruption of social order in the guise of "civil disobedience" - not to mention their idealistic attitudes towards democracy - justified their illegal actions and won sympathy. However, recent public opinion polls show that more than 80 per cent of respondents want the protesters to leave the streets.
The two-month-long occupation has failed to earn support from the majority of Hong Kong people because we do not support action that breaks the law, and believe the current social and political situations do not warrant methods of change whereby everyone has to pay a high price. The protests resulted in inconveniences to residents and businesses, ongoing clashes between protesters and police, as well as a potential long-term economic impact.
In any movement, protesters have to shift tactics when the majority is not on their side. Political change cannot be achieved by occupying roads or blocking the entrances to government headquarters. Some are not happy with the National People's Congress Standing Committee decision, but any suggestion has to be in line with the Basic Law. In their attempt to solve our social problems, the protesters' radical plan to reconstruct the political system is not the right way.
Meanwhile, the government should think out of the box. For instance, it should co-operate with developers to build small and medium-sized flats for younger people to rent or buy. It should also rezone 2 to 3 per cent of green-belt areas for housing development.
It is understandable that young people are concerned about missing out on opportunities, and about the cost of living and lack of upward mobility. However, they are in a better position than the previous generation like us, most of whom were pioneers who came from Guangdong to Hong Kong with almost nothing. The business environment was rough.
We understand the importance of a good environment. That's why we suggested that the government set up a HK$5 billion fund to provide youths with training and resources, to equip them with the skills needed to succeed as entrepreneurs.
Hong Kong has more resources today than before, including free education for all. And the opportunities of a globalised world are there for the taking. With technology advancing at a rapid pace, today's successful people are not necessarily those born with a silver spoon in their mouths. Many started from scratch, like Jack Ma Yun and the late Steve Jobs.
Those unable to enter the university system also need to change their mentality that universities are the only route to success. The government has improved Hong Kong's apprenticeship and internship programmes for vocational education. These can prepare young people for decent jobs that support key industries, such as aviation, logistics and emerging sectors such as IT and green construction.
Motivation is most important. The government continues to find ways to help young people prepare for the opportunities they need to fulfil their potential.
And how about you, young people? Can you live up to that potential?
Jeffrey Lam Kin-fung is a legislative councillor in the commercial (first) functional constituency
Lawyers post a court injunction notice in Admiralty on Tuesday afternoon. Photo: Sam Tsang
Protesters should pack up their things and leave the Occupy camp in Admiralty before a clearance begins on Thursday morning, lawmaker Paul Tse Wai-chun said.
Tse, solicitor for Kwoon Chung Bus Holdings subsidiary All China Express, said bailiffs and police would start the clearance at 9am following a court order obtained by the bus company.
“If anyone fails to follow the court injunction order, I am afraid we will officially request the involvement of bailiffs and police to assist and execute the order,” Tse said today.
Copies of the court order were posted in the injunction area this afternoon.
Although he failed to say how many police officers would be deployed in the removal action, Tse said police had promised their full support. A police source yesterday put the figure at 3,000 officers, adding that the force intended to clear the entire Occupy camp and reopen roads to traffic. The source also said that police would clear the Occupy site in Causeway Bay on Thursday too, if possible.
Tse believes it would take about two hours to clear the areas covered by the injunction order in Admiralty if there was no resistance from protesters.
He said he would find an appropriate channel to pass the message to students. “I hope they will leave the scene peacefully,” he said.
However, a leader of a newly-formed student group warned that they might “use force to stop violence” if police attack occupiers during the clearance.
Copies of the court order were posted in the injunction area this afternoon. Photo: Sam Tsang
The leader of Student Front, who only identified himself as Mr Cheng, said that his group’s members would “monitor” the police’s work if they only cleared the area designated in the court injunction.
But if officers tried to clear the main Admiralty camp, and protesters insisted on staying, Cheng’s group would be “standing at the frontline to defend,” he said.
Speaking on a RTHK radio programme this morning, Cheng said: “We believe there’s nothing wrong with using force to stop violence. As the police said they could use minimal force [in their operations], we won’t rule out using minimal force to protect ourselves.”
He also said students should protect themselves with motorcycle helmets instead of those used by construction workers, because he had seen police officers removing protesters’ helmets and hitting them with batons.
Student Front was founded on Saturday by about a dozen core members. Cheng, who studies at an Australian university, said more than 200 people had expressed an interest in joining the group, but he would only handle membership matters after the police operations.
Meanwhile, some protesters in Admiralty had already begun packing. Yesterday, no protesters were seen camping in areas covered by the court injunction. All that remained was some construction waste and four roadblocks from outside City Hall on Connaught Road Central to the section of Cotton Tree Drive next to the Lippo Centre.
Those guarding roadblocks on the border of the Occupy camp were also moving their line of defence out of the area covered by the injunction yesterday afternoon.
“If we are outnumbered by the police [when clearance starts], say by several times, it’s unwise to get arrested just for the sake of being arrested,” said a 24-year-old fresh graduate surnamed Cheung, who together with several others moved their roadblocks out of the injunction area.
Police and protesters clashed in Admiralty last Sunday and Monday. Photo: Sam Tsang
However, Cheung, said most of the fellow protesters he knew would return with better protective gear tomorrow and on Thursday to try to defend the occupied zone.
Cheung said Student Front had not been in contact with them.
“As far as I know, [Student Front] are forming a new group with those who have not been camping here,” he said.
Inside the main Occupy site on Harcourt Road, volunteers manning supplies and first aid booths have been transferring supplies, such as goggles, helmets and masks, from storage at student union storerooms in universities.
If time and space allow, protesters will also be packing some of their tents for any future reoccupation, said a sixth-former surnamed Tong, who has been running a supplies booth opposite the chief executive’s office on Harcourt Road.
“We don’t want to waste anything the public has donated to us,” she said. “These can become useful again since Occupy has already become normal.”
First aid volunteers would also try to bring as many medical supplies with them, should clearance start, she said.
“We hope we will leave nothing for the cops,” said a nursing student surnamed Keung, 22, who along with about a dozen others had earlier helped relocate supplies from a first aid station on Connaught Road Central to another on Harcourt Road.
Benny Tai urged protesters to leave peacefully. Photo: Nora Tam
Occupy co-founder Benny Tai Yiu-ting said it was time to think of new ways to pursue democracy for the city as he called on protesters to leave the occupied zones. “I urge protesters who are still at the sites to leave,” he said, as he did not want anyone to risk injury.
The occupied period may have come to the end but it did not mean the end of the democracy movement, he said.
“We can still use different forms of action to pursue democracy. I believe citizens and the public will not give up their will for true democracy,” Tai said.
He said if some protesters decided to remain at the site, he hoped that they would apply the principle of non-violence and that police would use minimum force during the clearance.
He also said it was “inevitable” that some protesters would act aggressively if they found their voices were not being heard.
“In any kind of political movement in the world, if people fail to fight for what they want in a peaceful way, they will turn aggressive. It is inevitable. However, I still believe the best and the most effective way is still to fight for it by non-violent means,” he said.
Tai said that in the current situation, the government had to respond to people’s needs and establish true universal suffrage.
China hails Macau's adherence to Basic Law in subtle warning against democracy movements
Neighbouring city of protest-hit Hong Kong is praised by top officials for its compliance, possibly to pre-empt copycat Occupy activities
National and local officials in charge of Macau have praised the world's gambling capital for fully adhering to its Basic Law and the principle of "one country, two systems", in an apparently veiled warning against any activities modelled after the Occupy Central civil disobedience protests.
The latest comments came from Li Gang - Beijing's point man in Macau as its liaison office director - following similar remarks in the past week from Li Fei, deputy secretary general of the National People's Congress Standing Committee, and Macau's Chief Executive Dr Fernando Chui Sai-on.
Just like the other two, Li Gang also urged Macau to rely less economically on its gaming industry.
All three spoke ahead of the former Portuguese enclave's 15th handover anniversary next week - and amid Hong Kong's political storm that is into its 10th week.
"Throughout the past 15 years, 'one country, two systems' and the Basic Law has been implemented comprehensively … in Macau," Li Gang, formerly deputy director of Beijing's liaison office in Hong Kong, told state media outlet Xinhua in an interview published yesterday.
One example was Macau's executive-led government, working hand in hand with the legislature. "The whole community adheres to, supports, learns and promotes the Basic Law," he said.
Li's words on Macau contrasted with Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's view of Occupy student protesters in Hong Kong, whom he said betrayed their lack of familiarity with the city's Basic Law in pressing for Beijing's withdrawal of conditions on the 2017 vote for Leung's successor.
Li said Macau was a place where "anyone who says the Basic Law is not good will be [as despised as] a rat on the street".
"People in Macau … thank the central government and thank the Basic Law."
Macau-based observer Larry So Man-yum saw Li's remarks as related to Occupy. "He has delivered a very clear message for Macau's youngsters, telling them not to do anything that departs from the Basic Law, like what is happening in Hong Kong."
Hong Kong-based China watcher Johnny Lau Yui-siu said Beijing's intention was to tell Hongkongers which city it regarded as better at implementing "one country, two systems".
But Lau added: "Even so, it understands well that this system is not applicable to Hong Kong … The two cities have vastly different conditions."
Macau has experienced an unprecedentedly restless year that at its height saw thousands rally outside the legislature against Chui's proposal of criminal immunity for his position.
Chui scrapped the plan before a 400-strong panel re-elected him in August. Fledging democracy campaigners staged a "referendum" that found almost 90 per cent of locals did not trust him.
Li suggested that, to diversify the economy, a key solution was to foster cooperation with Hong Kong and Guangdong. "Developing a diverse economy is an important mission and a requirement the central government has for Macau," he said.
On Sunday, Chui said Macau's handover had been achieved "not only jurisprudentially, but also in terms of people's hearts". He pledged that the full execution of "one country, two systems" would be the core focus of his next five-year term, starting on Macau's handover anniversary, December 20.
Two expatriate architects have drawn up detailed maps of protest sites that they hope will eventually be exhibited as a historic document of the movement.
The spot where the tear gas was fired, the tent villages, the post-it note wall and study corner are all among the landmarks that will go into a mapping project aimed at documenting the growth of the Occupy Central sites.
While police are expected to clear the Admiralty site tomorrow, expatriate architects Caroline Wuethrich and Geraldine Borio, both from Switzerland, said they were drawn by the unique way the pro-democracy protesters have expressed their messages in objects and space.
"The movement has inspired so much ad hoc architecture in such a brief period of time," said Wuethrich.
"All three protest sites are self-built, rapidly organised and beautiful tools of protest, leisure, worship and infrastructure."
She said the self-made barricades, supply infrastructure and temporary institutions like cinemas and libraries inscribe themselves into the site and represent physical and metaphorical marks that are loaded with meaning.
"By showing these physical objects in context and in relation to each other, these maps reveal the way protesters have repurposed the space over time," said Wuethrich.
The pair, co-founders of Swiss Registered Architect, volunteered to begin mapping the movement in the first week of protests, shortly after tear gas was fired by police on September 28. They said that the map would not be 100 per cent accurate, but that they had visited the sites frequently and made regular updates.
Borio said the three protest sites - in Admiralty, Mong Kok and Causeway Bay - each represented a different aspect of local culture. "You can see the situation is beyond just demanding democracy now," she said. "We do not know how long the protest will last. We hope the map will offer a different understanding and memories of the protest."
Wuethrich said: "It is amazing how Hongkongers are so adaptive to needs and constraints.
"It is well known that space is limited in this city, but Hongkongers often come up with something creative and functional in response to it. It is not something that can be learnt or copied, it is an instinct."
They hoped that the map would one day be exhibited on a larger scale as a historical document to remember the actions of the movement.
Take down your yellow or blue ribbon profile pictures from Facebook if you want to mend the deepening rift in society.
That was a piece of advice from Dr Harry Hui Chi-chiu, the head of the psychology department at the University of Hong Kong, as he surveyed the online battles being waged in the weeks since the pro-democracy sit-in began.
The colour yellow symbolises the pro-democracy cause and blue represents support for the police tasked with the job of ejecting the protesters.
As the protesters are expected to be cleared from their sites in Admiralty and Causeway Bay from tomorrow, internet users may well grow weary of defriending people who do not support their colour.
Hui warned people against believing that they make up the majority of society, based on views they share within their own circle of friends, whether online or offline.
"They may believe: how could I be wrong if there are so many people share my views?" he said.
But in day-to-day conversations, there is little doubt that views on the way ahead for Hong Kong politics will remain polarised. Hence, even as the physical barriers are removed, Hong Kong society has to confront the reality that divisions will remain.
Dr Harry Hui Chi-chiu said he was not optimistic that reconciliation would take place soon, or easily.
On social media, the divisions are clear and waves of “un-friending” on Facebook have been taking place, as netizens took sides. One of those “un-friended” was Shan, a 24-year old policewoman who refused to give her full name, after she changed her profile picture to a blue ribbon.
“I never thought it would spark such a big row [on my page],” she said. “People wrote comments saying I blindly support the police where some of them I haven’t even talked to for years.”
Immigration officer Ling, who supported the students, meanwhile had been cautious to avoid stirring up any unnecessary conflicts with her civil servant colleagues – a number of whom support the police – by not making any political comments or changing her profile picture on Facebook.
Some analysts believe Hongkongers have not been more divided since 1967, when pro-China protests were put down by the British-Hong Kong police who used tear gas.
"I think different kinds of protests will continue, even though the current phase will be put to an end," said Professor Richard Tsang Yip-fat of the Department of Cultural and Creative Arts at the Hong Kong Institute of Education.
"Any healing would only be superficial if the source of our problems is not tackled squarely. We still have not resolved the issue," he said, referring to the National People's Congress decision on pre-vetting the chief executive candidates for the 2017 elections.
The protesters are opposed to it and have called for greater freedoms. On the other side are those who say they should appreciate that they will have a choice compared with none before, and accept that these are the rules set by the central government.
Leo Lee Ou-fan, a retired Harvard professor now teaching at Chinese University, was pessimistic that society could move on without further fissures.
"Every mass movement has a momentum based on an ideological trend of the time," he said. "The movement itself may be over in due course, but the issue in question is hardly over, even years afterwards."
The professor, a Taiwan-born American citizen, cited two traumatic episodes he personally witnessed in which the sociopolitical rifts outlived the initial momentum for decades. These were the Civil Rights Movement in the United States in the 1960s and the strife in Taiwan between the Kuomintang and the island population.
"It took Taiwan two decades to go through the change from the early 1970s to the 1990s, whereas the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s is still very much alive nowadays," he said, referring to recent racial tension in the US.
He said that the professionals involved in the Hong Kong protest movement had to take the lead in envisioning a broader and longer-term perspective on the changes they want to bring about and to strategise and plan beyond 2017.
"With a wider angle, we can reflect on our own position without getting into a bottleneck concerned only with short-sighted issues," Lee said.
But Tsang felt that the Occupy movement had induced a "feeling of dire helplessness in many Hong Kong people" that is hard to erase. He believes the government must make the all-important first step to resume dialogue.
"True reconciliation must capture people's hearts. Our leaders should have the courage to explain frankly and sincerely the government's stance to the community and how it is considering 'the best interests' of Hong Kong," the education specialist said.
"At the same time they must also have the courage to face and respond to any challenge from the public which says otherwise. Only through such open, sincere and no-holds-barred debate can both sides begin to glimpse any possible middle ground," he said.
Professor John Burns, the Dean of Social Sciences at the University of Hong Kong, agreed with the need for interaction.
"We need more tolerance of others' opinions and a willingness to compromise on all sides, yes, including the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] too," he said.
Lee cited the "sunflower movement" in Taiwan earlier this year as a useful case study in "compromise on all sides".
"The students in the sunflower movement set specific objectives - occupying the parliament chamber to get the government's response on the trade pact with the mainland. With [president] Ma Ying-jeou's reconciliatory move, a compromise was reached and the movement was over before long," he said.
The massive three-week demonstration was sparked by the government's attempt to pass the Cross Strait Service Trade Agreement, which the protesters claimed was done without proper review. The protest was resolved peacefully as the students withdrew from the occupied parliament chamber after Ma promised strict scrutiny of the pact.
"But there is not a slightest concession from the Leung Chun-ying administration and that makes it very difficult for any kind of reconciliation," said Lee. "I think the government should reflect on this with soberness."
Also pressing for dialogue, Tsang said: "Hong Kong citizens are rational and mature enough to choose what is best for them."
Beyond the government, there is much the rest of society can also do, said experts.
Dr Maria Francesch, a public policy specialist at City University, suggested young leaders should be actively engaged to tap their contributions to society.
Speaking in her own capacity, she said: "The student leaders have demonstrated great ability in mobilising the community but some in the grass roots have yet to understand their ideas and objectives better."
The Spanish scholar, who has lived in Hong Kong since 1993, also said think tanks such as the Our Hong Kong Foundation set up last month by former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa, could sponsor the students to study public leadership training at top academic institutions overseas and later appoint them to advisory bodies.
This would help integrate them better and allow organisations to tap their energy and ideas, Francesch said.
In this way, these organisations would be rejuvenated, rather than be reliant on people who were "'recycled' with their often out-of-touch thinking", she said.
HKU’s Hui advised individual citizens to stay sober. Yellow or blue ribbons, for example, could convey a distorted perception.
“People might assume you support all aspects of the students if you put up a yellow ribbon, even if you were only somewhat sympathetic to them … that is already inaccurate,” Hui, head of HKU's psychology department, said.
Throughout the movement, Hongkongers across the political spectrum have actively voiced their views – sometimes in heavy wordings – on Facebook and other social media over the sit-ins, but he advised people not to say things – or type anything online – when they are angry or tired.
“Study after study has shown that our ability to make correct judgment of facts is severely handicapped under those circumstances," he said.
Publicising your stance online would also make it less changeable, said Hui, as people would be inclined to reinforce such views even if they had second thoughts about them.
The “false consensus” they create – where they tend to overestimate the extent to which their opinions are shared by others – would be further escalated when the “un-friending” culture emerges, Hui said, as people believed they are the majority in the society.
The alleged beating of Occupy protester Ken Tsang Kin-chiu by seven officers in a dark corner of Tamar Park last month, and the recent operation by police in Mong Kok, again added tensions to the relationship between protesters and police.
From a social psychological perspective, Hui said protesters would have an “out group homogeneity bias” where they believe all police officers are the same – and police officers also have the same bias where they assume that most protesters are alike – which might make the rift even wider.
“There are people of high and low quality in each camp,” he said. “The ‘high quality’ ones might be unhappy to be tarred with the same brush. That would intensify their prejudice towards the other camp.”
But Hui said he was not optimistic that reconciliation would take place soon, or easily.
"It's way more difficult to make concessions if you - the government and the students - are negotiating on behalf of a group of people," he said. "It's way beyond social psychology."
In a similar vein, professor Lee said that Hong Kong society would need to look to impartial leaders who could exercise moral leadership to move forward.
He said: "This is also an opportunity for China to demonstrate to the world the great nation that it now is."
Police officers clash with pro-democracy protesters outside Central Government Offices in Admiralty. Photo: Felix Wong
The police are the least popular among the main disciplined services in the city, and rank lower than the People's Liberation Army in terms of public satisfaction, according to a poll conducted by the University of Hong Kong.
The poll results, released yesterday, came amid criticism of officers using excessive force against Occupy protesters, but the force maintains this has had no impact on recruitment.
The police will hold its first recruitment day since the Occupy protests began in late September at the Hong Kong Auxiliary Police headquarters in Kowloon Bay on Saturday. More than 1,000 online applications have been received, the South China Morning Post learned.
The force hopes to recruit 1,340 officers, including 230 inspectors and 1,100 police constables, by the end of the current fiscal year.
A police source said he did not think recent operations to disperse protesters - including the use of batons - had deterred people from joining the force.
But the findings of yesterday's poll seemed to suggest the reputation of the force had been tarnished because of its recent operations against protesters. The poll, conducted late last month, asked 545 people to rate their satisfaction with the major disciplined forces in Hong Kong, as well as the PLA Hong Kong garrison.
On a scale of zero to 100, the Fire Services Department came first with a score of 80.2. Second and third respectively, were the Immigration Department (73.3) and the Customs and Excise Department (73). The police came fifth with 61, behind the Civil Aid Service, which scored 71.6.
It was the lowest score for the police in the past two years. In the last poll in June, its score was 62.3. This itself was down on the figure of 63.7 last December. Meanwhile, the PLA scored 63.1 in the latest poll, up from 62.5 in June and 61.4 a year ago.
Dr Robert Chung Ting-yiu, director of the public opinion programme at the University of Hong Kong, said: "The popularity drop of the police is obviously due to the Occupy movement, which has seen the police caught between different political forces.
"To overcome this problem, the force will have to strengthen its professionalism in executing its duties, and also its affection and care for society. It should not lean towards any political force, nor resort to improper means."
The force maintains it has always remained politically neutral and will execute its power impartially.
Senior Superintendent Kong Man-keung, of the police's public relations branch, said the role of officers in the protests was to restore social order and protect public security.
On the poll rating, he said: "The police respect the findings of various polls, whether they appear negative or not. These provide a good reference for us to improve our service."
He also said the force had received more than 17,000 emails from members of the public expressing support for their handling of the Occupy protests.
Re: HK Protest Leaders High! Demands Talks With 11 Jinping In Peking!
Students plan one last sit-in to mark the end of Occupy as clearance looms
Student groups call for calm and pledge no physical resistance as police plan their operation to clear Occupy protest sites
Bus company representatives post copies of a court injunction in Admiralty, authorising bailiffs to clear protesters. Photo: Sam Tsang
Student leaders at the core of the two-month-long Occupy protests say they will not put up any physical resistance to the police's clearance operation in Admiralty tomorrow, which they expect will mark the end of the occupation.
Alex Chow Yong-kang, secretary general of the Federation of Students, said his group would sit at the protest site to wait for the police to come along with court bailiffs.
While the bailiffs will execute an injunction covering one-fifth of the Admiralty camp, police said they would start clearing the entire camp and the Causeway Bay site tomorrow, deploying 7,000 officers in two shifts.
"We will sit outside the injunction area. We will stay true to the spirit of civil disobedience - remain peaceful and bear the legal consequences of our action," Chow said yesterday, a week after the federation's failed bid to blockade government headquarters. Government staff have been told not to go to the offices in Admiralty tomorrow.
The federation will ask those who have reservations about the plan to leave the site. But it wants those willing to face legal consequences for taking part in the movement to return to Admiralty tomorrow morning. The sit-in would "mark the end of this phase of the occupation", he said.
Joshua Wong Chi-fung, the leader of student group Scholarism who went on hunger strike for over 100 hours last week, also called for calm. "We respect the rule of law and we will remain non-violent," he said.
Wong disagreed with the plan of some protesters to clash with police, saying "protesters' gear is no match for the police".
The student groups' pledge came hours after Paul Tse Wai-chun, a lawmaker and solicitor for Kwoon Chung Bus Holdings' subsidiary All China Express, said bailiffs and police would start clearing sections of Connaught Road Central and Cotton Tree Drive at 9am tomorrow.
Bailiffs posted copies of the court order in Admiralty, while the document and a map explaining the injunction were also published in newspapers.
Announcing details of the operation last night, assistant commissioner of police (operations) Cheung Tak-keung, said apart from the areas covered by the injunction order, the police would also reopen occupied roads in Admiralty and Central.
Some protesters in Admiralty began packing. Those guarding roadblocks on the border of the Occupy camp on Harcourt Road were also moving their line of defence out of the injunction area.
But newly formed group Student Front warned they might resist physically. "We believe there's nothing wrong with using force to stop violence," group co-founder Mr Cheng said on radio.
At the Causeway Bay site, Melvin Lee, a 43-year-old engineer who quit his job to join the movement two months ago, said most protesters "won't have a change of heart" and leave just because the government announced it would clear the site.
Last night, the last of the five hunger-striking Scholarism members, Gloria Cheng Yik-lam, broke her fast on doctor's advice after 142 hours.
Tony Cheung, Joyce Ng, Jennifer Ngo, Samuel Chan and Peter So
A huge banner reads "We'll be back" set up by pro-democracy protesters lies on an overpass at the financial Central district in Hong Kong. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
In an all-out clearance of the Occupy Central base camp in Admiralty today, police will sweep in from both ends of the site and arrest anyone who refuses to leave after 11am.
Officers will also record the personal details of people who leave voluntarily after that time.
Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said the student leaders' invitation yesterday for protesters to return to Admiralty was "most undesirable".
Lam called on parents, teachers and university heads to persuade protesters to leave the site. Photo: Dickson Lee
"Knowing there are some radical elements among the protesters, confrontation might become inevitable," Lam said.
She added that she was "not so naive" as to think the clearance would put an end to the turmoil.
The uncompromising measures were revealed last night as thousands gathered in expectation of a dramatic end to the sit-ins that have been dubbed the "umbrella movement".
Leaders of Scholarism and the Federation of Students appealed to supporters to stay overnight and rally peacefully this morning.
Today at 9am, court bailiffs will enforce an injunction sought by a bus company that covers just a fifth of the camp.
Bailiffs will begin clearing the Occupy camp at 9am on Thursday. Photo: Sam Tsang
But police will cordon off the entire site at 11am - from the area near the Academy for Performing Arts to Connaught Road Central next to the Hong Kong Club, a police source said. That gives protesters two hours to react, during which time police will issue multiple warnings.
The force aims to resume normal traffic flow today, the source said. "[We] would not rule out the use of any equipment the force has at its disposal," but tear gas would not be fired "if it was unnecessary", he said.
Earlier, police sources had said 7,000 officers would be deployed in two shifts today. Police will not disperse people who retreat to Tamar Park unless asked to by the Leisure and Cultural Services Department.
Police stations will be mobilised for mass detentions of up to two days.
Last night, the fighting spirit at Admiralty heightened with protesters chanting slogans and speakers on stage talking about how to sustain the movement.
Pro-democracy protesters gather at the Occupy site in Admiralty last night. Photo: Reuters
Niki Cheung Sze-man, 28, said she would leave before the cordon lines went up. "We should conserve our energy for a long-term fight, so I do not want to be arrested or have my identity card number taken down."
The federation's secretary general, Alex Chow Yong-kang, said student protesters were prepared to be arrested. "We will choose to stay till the very end, as our refusal to give in to a government who would not heed the people's call."
Scholarism convenor Joshua Wong Chi-fung said he would not defy the police action this time, as he had been arrested before.
Students and about 20 pan-democrats will sit at the junction of Tim Wa Avenue and Harcourt Road, near the People's Liberation Army headquarters.
Concern Groups meet the media at Admiralty occupied site to urging police to exercise restraint in the clearing at Admiralty. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
Monitoring the clearance for any excessive use of force will be the Independent Police Complaints Council, along with 50 professors.
Meanwhile, League of Social Democrats vice chairman Raphael Wong Ho-ming was arrested for unlawful assembly on his way to the Admiralty site at about 11pm last night. He was detained at Sha Tin police station.
Samuel Chan, Phila Siu, Jennifer Ngo, Joyce Ng and Peter So
CityU student Jocelyn Wong was stopped from going to a wedding banquet in Shenzhen. Photo: May Tse
Beijing has completely lost the support of young Hongkongers by banning students from entering the mainland amid the Occupy Central protests, say two students who shared the experience of being denied entry.
Chinese University student Jason Szeto Tze-long, 20, and City University student Jocelyn Wong Chee-yan, 19, were among at least 30 young people denied entry to the mainland last month, after the Federation of Students announced its plan to visit Beijing to seek a dialogue with state leaders on political reform.
On November 15, three federation leaders were told at Hong Kong's airport their travel documents had been invalidated, hours before they were due to fly to Beijing to press their demands for true universal suffrage.
It is extremely rare for authorities to revoke a Hongkonger's "home return permit" before that person reaches the mainland.
Jason Szeto's application for a new travel permit was rejected. Photo: May Tse
Szeto, the external secretary of the Chinese University students' union, said he planned to go to Beijing with the three student leaders, but his application to renew his permit had been rejected. He filed his application again after November 15, but was told at the end of the month that it had been rejected again - meaning that he was unable to visit the mainland for another 10 years.
"I was surprised. I think it was unnecessary to take it to this level," Szeto said.
"In the past, you might be expelled. Now, they don't even give you face. It's a blow to the entire [younger] generation."
Szeto used to be a member of the League of Social Democrats, and worked as an assistant to lawmaker Wong Yuk-man. Szeto was arrested twice - on July 2 after a sit-in on Chater Road, and on November 26 as police cleared Nathan Road.
While some might argue Szeto was banned over his background, Beijing has yet to explain why others making "personal trips" were denied entry.
Jocelyn Wong said she was questioned by mainland authorities on November 23, when she was travelling to Shenzhen for a relative's wedding banquet.
"They took me to a room to search my handbag and checked the messages on my phone," Wong said. "I told them I was only attending a banquet, but an officer said I took part in activities that threatened national security. That's why they banned me."
Wong denied taking part in such activities, saying she had only been a volunteer for student group Scholarism and a part-time assistant to Civic Party lawmaker Dr Kwok Ka-ki.
"I never imagined that this would happen to me," Wong said. "I don't think Beijing has ever won the heart of our generation, because many of us don't like the mainland. "But [Occupy] is a strong message to Beijing that it has completely lost the [support of our] generation."
Secretary for Security Lai Tung-kwok said in the Legislative Council yesterday that the Hong Kong government could not intervene. "We have to respect the policies of mainland authorities."
Lawmaker Kwok asked Lai whether the government would follow up if Hongkongers who were denied entry asked for assistance. "If there are complaints, we will notify ... the mainland authorities," replied Lai.
