2014-07-01
RFA
Demonstrators march during a rally seeking greater democracy in Hong Kong, July 1, 2014 as frustration grows over the influence of Beijing on the territory.
Hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong residents took to the streets on Tuesday in one of the biggest popular demonstrations seen since the 1997 handover amid growing political tensions over the democratic process and Beijing's assertion of control over the territory.
While some chanted "[Chief executive] C.Y. Leung, step down!," and "We will save Hong Kong ourselves, we will choose our government ourselves!" others waved colonial-era flags and carried anti-Beijing slogans.
Periodically, the crowd, some of whom carried banners saying "We want real democracy" and "We stand united against China," launched into a Cantonese version of the Les Miserables anthem "Do You Hear the People Sing?"
A live video feed streamed to YouTube showed streets between skyscrapers lined with security officials in green vests and packed with people carrying banners and shuffling slowly towards the Central business district, where activists have vowed to hold an Occupy movement if popular demands for full democracy are blocked by the ruling Chinese Communist Party.
A section of the crowd. (AFP Photo)
Organizers said at least 510,000 protesters had joined the march by the time it ended on Tuesday, similar to the turnout recorded in July 1, 2003 demonstrations against the implementation of the Article 23 subversion clause in Hong Kong's mini-constitution, the Basic Law.
A participant surnamed Chan said he had come to protest against the government.
"I wanted to march in protest...at the government we have now," he said. "The way the northeastern development project...was forced through the legislature last Friday makes me fear a repeat of Article 23 all over again."
Police said an estimated 92,000 showed up for the start of the march at Hong Kong's Victoria Park, but social media updates from demonstrators said people were still arriving when the figure was announced, and that many more were stopped from entering the park in a bid to prevent overcrowding.
The huge turnout came after some 800,000 people voted in an unofficial referendum last week that was designed to gauge popular support for universal suffrage, including allowing candidates not vetted by Beijing to run for chief executive in 2017.
It also comes after a white paper issued by China earlier this month asserting Beijing's power over Hong Kong, and declaring that its traditionally independent judges should be "patriotic."
Vote with their feet
Former civil servant Wong Wing-ping said many people had turned out in the rain, to vote with their feet.
"The white paper probably came as a shock to the majority of Hong Kong citizens," Wong told RFA while on the march.
"It is totally different to the understanding that most...people had before the handover of how 'one country, two systems' would work after the handover," he said.
"Judges have to bear the burden of government demands that they be 'patriotic,' so this has caused a great deal of concern among citizens, particularly the legal profession," Wong said.
Chinese officials and state media have attacked the popvote.hk poll run by the University of Hong Kong as "illegal and invalid," although chief executive Leung later defended it as a valid form of public expression, albeit with no legal mandate.
The poll's website was hit by billions of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks ahead of and after its June 20 launch, with organizers of the Occupy Central movement pointing the finger at Beijing.
Popular anger
Rally organizer Johnson Yeung said Tuesday's massive turnout was largely prompted by popular anger with Leung's administration and Beijing, however.
"People are very excited about the fact that 800,000 people voted in the poll, and they are angry about the white paper," Yeung said.
He said police had failed to respond to the need for more space on the pre-arranged march route to prevent a crush.
"Three traffic lanes and the [central] tramway lines weren't enough," he said.
Meanwhile, Scholarism, a loose grouping of student organizations, said it planned to stage an all-night vigil in the Central business district until 9.00 a.m. on Wednesday, amid police warnings that "decisive action" could be taken if protesters refused to leave.
Students and other activists gathered in parks and streets between Hong Kong's iconic skyscrapers, singing a mass chorus of a popular power ballad by homegrown rockers Beyond, which contains a line about "never giving up a love of freedom," according to photos and video posted on Twitter and Instagram.
Ringing endorsement
Anson Chan, who was number two in the colonial-era government under last governor Chris Patten, said the march was a ringing endorsement of the desire for true universal suffrage.
"There is a strong desire for genuine democracy that offers choice and competition without [political] vetting," Anson Chan told reporters on Tuesday.
Leung, meanwhile, was at a flag-raising ceremony marking the 17th anniversary of the handover. He said the government would "do its utmost" to gain agreement with Beijing on the democratic process, without giving details.
Tuesday's largely peaceful march came after a silent, black-clad protest by hundreds of members of Hong Kong's legal profession on Friday against the June 10 white paper, which categorizes judges in Hong Kong as administrators who need to be "patriotic," as well as asserting Beijing's "comprehensive jurisdiction" over the territory.
Violent attacks
And a string of violent attacks on the more outspoken members of Hong Kong's formerly free-wheeling press has sparked fears that other traditional freedoms are already being eroded.
In March, Hong Kong Morning News vice-president Lei Lun-han and news controller Lam Kin-ming were attacked on a street in the Tsim Sha Tsui commercial district by four men wielding iron bars.
And in February, former Ming Pao editor-in-chief Kevin Lau was seriously injured by two men wielding meat cleavers, prompting an outcry by local journalists' associations over intimidation of the press.
A monthly opinion poll published on Monday by the Chinese University's Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies found that nearly 44 percent of around 800 Hong Kong residents said they did not trust Beijing, a rise of five percentage points from May.
Reported by Lin Jing for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Yang Fan for the Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
***
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
02072014
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
No comments:
Post a Comment