A second march is on the way

Today could be a historic day in the Hong Kong political atmosphere. A political rally/march is being organised on Hong Kong island by democratic leaders in Hong Kong's. These democrats want to see universal sufferage (voting directly for the chief executive, the leader, of HK) as soon as possible whereas the current leader, Donald Tsang, and the central government in Beijing are proposing baby steps toward universal sufferage. Beijing has already ruled it out in 2007 when Donald Tsang's term is up for re-election (not by the public, but by a group of pro-Beijing leaders). The fact that Beijing calls the choosing of a chief executive an 'election' is a farce.


Left: Donald Tsang and his 'real' boss, Chairman Hu Jintao
The interesting part of this whole story is the fact that aside from this political hot potato, Donald Tsang is popular amongst the HK people. In fact, if he were to run for election, he would probably win it. That is why I sympathise with his position; he serves two masters: the central government in Beijing, who chose him and could yank him at any time, and also the HK ong people. The HK people only have one way to exercise their power, and that is to march on the streets. Now don't get the wrong idea, the last march on a hot July day in 2003 was not violent at all. Families went out to show their frustrations in a peaceful manner. The last march in 2003 was about a proposed anti-subversion bill that the public felt would undermine their freedoms. After witnessing the rally, the government took the message and stopped pushing for the bill.

This year, the story is a bit different; Donald Tsang got on HK television and made an appeal to HK people to embrace the universal sufferage plan, saying if it wasn't accepted, the dream of electing the chief executive would grind to a halt.
By accepting the proposal, it would be the best chance for HK to attain universal sufferage in the future. The key thing to remember is that there is NO timetable set in the government's proposal towards universal sufferage so many HKers are worried it's a stalling tactic. Of course, many people took this as a 'take it or leave it' gesture by Tsang and the central government: 'if you don't accept our plan towards universal sufferage then you won't get anything.' From the media, it sounds like this tactic has made people more adamant to march against the government.

But that's where my sympathy comes in. Donald Tsang is a career civil servant and born and bred in HK. He is a people person; he knows how to push the right buttons from the HK people and his subordinates. He's widely respected in the business, social and government community. What is coming out of his mouth these days is what Beijing wants HK to hear. This talk about HK not being a mature enough society to be able to handle full democracy is complete and utter bullshit. HK adheres to the rule of law, there is a freedom of the media here, the anti-corruption council is strong and active and HK people are educated and travel the world freely. There is no excuse for not allowing universal sufferage other than the fact Beijing is afraid of the snowball affect on the Pearl River delta region (perhaps all of China?) surrounding HK as well as Taiwan, which Beijing hopes to bring back to the fold one day.

You may be wondering if I'm attending the march since I am definitely FOR universal sufferage? I'd love to march and get some good photos out of it, but unfortunately, I have other commitments and won't be able to go. But I'll be there in spirit.