Carrie Lam got a dragon by the tail and it snapped back. Yesterday, if you set aside people too young, old, ill or disabled, one third of Hong Kong’s population took to the streets. It was an incredible display of People Power. A momentous day in Hong Kong’s history. Where will this lead? Will there be a Tiananmen-style crackdown?
A BUZZ team member walked among the demonstrators on Hennessy Road and Lockhart Road. The mass of humanity, swamping not only roads but footpaths too, was daunting. If you love Hong Kong it was emotional. The attitude of the marchers, about 98 percent young with a sprinkle of oldies and expats, was solemn and determined. Hundreds of thousands were chanting in unison, brandishing fists, “Withdraw, Withdraw, Withdraw.” Most wore black shirts, a sign of anger over Wednesday’s violence and solidarity with the injured. One man has died, falling while erecting a banner, the first martyr of the 2019 protests. A shrine was built in his honour.
It appeared from the police we saw that they had been given instructions to pull back from the aggression shown on Wednesday. We saw no helmets, shields or drawn batons. The police were in ordinary uniforms, many in blue berets from the Police Tactical Unit. They stood passively as the masses swarmed past. One thin line of blue shirts backed up a barrier across Lockhart Road to prevent the marchers reaching Legco and the Tamar government headquarters.
The demonstration yesterday was far larger than the one of a week earlier. Then protestors walking through Causeway Bay and Wanchai thronged Hennessy Road only. Yesterday the marchers swamped sidewalk to sidewalk parallel roads too, Gloucester Road, Lockhart Road, Jaffe Road and Johnston Road. It did appear close to two million people marched. There was no sign of violence, no window smashing and looting as you would expect in some countries. Just this determined implacable mass of Hong Kong youth saying we don’t want your extradition law, Carrie must go and resist the Communist Party’s encroachment on our freedoms.
Legislative Councillor Priscilla Leung, who is pro-Peking, said the city is divided. “We have a million signatures” on a petition in support of the extradition bill. Fellow Councillor Claudia Mo said, “They’ve got signatures, we’ve got bodies.”
The people shouted for Carrie Lam’s resignation. Like Theresa May she is overwhelmed and misunderstood. If you read Ms Lam’s latest policy address you will see she is a good person at heart, liberal minded, caring about issues that concern most of us (e.g. animal welfare and the environment.) She is highly intelligent, so it is a mystery why someone so smart would blatantly lie that she was not under pressure from Peking. Now she has astonished everyone by apologising for the extradition bill disaster and “the Government’s deficiencies”. Carrie has been reduced to a Lam duck.
David Webb writing yesterday on Webb-site.com said Peking will hold Ms Lam responsible for leading them down this path and triggering the protests. “Just as Tung Chee-wah and Leung Chun-ying did not see a second term in office neither will she.” Ms Lam’s five-year term is up in June 2022. “To avoid loss of face for both Beijing and Ms Lam, there will be a decent interval before she excuses herself, perhaps to spend more time with her family. A second term is out of the question.”
The Communist Party rulers of the mainland fear Hong Kong’s political stroppiness may spill over into Chinese cities. Firewalls and censorship can stop only so much information in the digital age. Mainlanders are travelling much more. If marches like this one in Hong Kong start occurring over the border, what will be the response of authoritarian rulers in Peking? Will they order out the People’s Liberation Party? Will we see 1989 all over again?
This morning major Central arteries, such as Queensway, were still blocked by protesting youngsters who had slept on the street. Hong Kong’s top officials are aware that Occupy Central which shut down much of the business district for 79 days was a huge blow to the retail and tourist sectors. If the people continue to act like this is a re-run of Occupy Central, will there by a police crackdown, clearing the streets? What will the people do then?
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