Six Years Ago Today

Yellow umbrellas in force at Admiralty six years ago

 

Six years ago today was the start of the Umbrella Movement. I remember that day in Admiralty, seeing people carrying umbrellas and some wearing masks and goggles. What was going to happen? 

I just knew there were students holed up at Civic Square, surrounded by the police and people demanded that they be let go.

Nothing happened, so my friend YTSL and I grabbed a bite to eat in a restaurant in Pacific Place shopping mall and that's when I checked Twitter to discover people had occupied the roads.

When teargas was fired, umbrellas were defense

In disbelief we went back to see a surreal sight of people on the roads, helping each other climb over the highway barriers and wandering around. It was so bizarre we wandered around too and wondered how long this would last.

Later that evening around 6pm the police fired teargas into the crowds, who tried to defend themselves with umbrellas. People watching the scenes unfold on television were in shock and rushed over to Admiralty.

It would be 79 days before the occupation ended, and it was the spark that ignited the passion of fighting for democracy in Hong Kong. The community spirit at Admiralty was warm, friendly, eco-friendly. It had a utopian atmosphere of what people believed Hong Kong should be.

Students set up desks to do their homework and people volunteered to tutor them, people drew posters, encouraged others to write notes on the first Lennon Wall, and others created arts and crafts inspired by the movement.

The famous or infamous televised debate

Meanwhile the government was caught completely off guard and had no idea what to do. They looked worse debating student leaders, who demanded that the election reform should include nominations from local citizens. However, the government claimed this fell outside the framework of the Basic Law and the National People's Congress Standing Committee decision.

The government revealed its impotence though it claimed the talks were "candid and meaningful", while the student leaders expressed disappointment in the lack of concrete results.

The protests revealed the growing divide between pro-establishment and pro-democracy camps, both becoming more entrenched in their positions.

And then on December 15, 2014 the Umbrella Movement ended unceremoniously with people being arrested for refusing to leave the protest sites, and the police cleaning up the roads for traffic to finally resume.

I never thought I would see the roads occupied by people ever again until it happened again five years later with the anti-extradition protests. 

Protesters regrouped in Admiralty last year

All that pent-up frustration and anger exploded again in the city, revealing that people still had the passion inside them to protest what they felt was not good for Hong Kong. 

But alas it has come to this -- a tone-deaf government controlled by the heavy hand of Beijing. The implementation of the national security law in the hours before July 1 came out of the blue for everyone else, but was the plan all along to force Hongkongers into submission.

And with the ongoing pandemic, it makes it even easier for Beijing to do as it pleases, postponing the Legislative Council elections (that should have been earlier this month), and outright banning mass protests all in the name of social distancing.

October 1 will have a loaded meaning this year, as it is China's national day and Mid-Autumn Festival. And the legend has it that over 600 years ago, the Han overthrew the Mongol Yuan dynasty by inserting secret messages inside the mooncakes...

A mini protest tonight in Pacific Place

Tonight there was a low-key protest at Pacific Place to mark the sixth anniversary of the Umbrella Movement. About two dozen peo

ple turned out to shout anti-government slogans and sing protest songs.

While police watched nearby they didn't arrest anyone, and instead urged people to disperse.

The Civil Human Rights Front had applied for a march to protest the 12 people detained on the mainland on October 1, but that was immediately banned due to social-distancing measures. 

What will happen next?

Civic Square to Reopen -- With Strings Attached

Police surround student activists in Civic Square; other protesters outside

More than four years later, Civic Square at the Hong Kong government headquarters in Admiralty will reopen on Thursday -- but with conditions.

While it will reopen to vehicles as a drop-off point, demonstrators will only be allowed in the space if they have permits for Sundays and public holidays.

This area was the flash point in late September 2014 when young people stormed the square (which is actually round), and led to the Occupy Movement days later. It had been cordoned off since July the same year when people protested against national education.

Joshua Wong and Agnes Chow say reopening is "fake"

For student activist Joshua Wong Chi-fung, this re-opening is "fake".

"Civic Square symbolizes the basic right of citizens to demonstrate in front of the government headquarters," Wong said. "The final goal [of reopening the square] must be to restore it back to its former condition, where citizens are free to gather and demonstrate."

The possibility of reopening Civic Square was an election promise by Chief Executive Carrie Cheng Yuet-ngor, though the conditions of reopening the area seem limited at best.

"It's not a real or true reopening," said Agnes Chow-ting of Demosisto party. "It's just a political show."

How ironic Civic Square isn't open to the public

We agree. Either open Civic Square completely or keep it closed.

And the latter would continue the irony of the area's name. It was supposed to be for the people -- and us taxpayers have funded it -- and yet we're not allowed in it.

This is hardly an olive branch in good faith, Mrs Lam.

Three Occupy Leaders Jailed

Joshua Wong in a police van before being sent to start his prison sentence

Joshua Wong Chi-fung hasn't been afraid to stand up for his convictions, but today he, along with Alex Chow Yong-kang and former legislator Nathan Law Kwun-chung will face their biggest test yet -- prison time -- for storming Civic Square, that led to the eruption of the Umbrella Movement almost three years ago.

Wong was sentenced to six months, Law eight, and Chow seven. Because their prison terms are longer than three months, they are ineligible to run for a seat in the Legislative Council for the next five years.

The trio were defiant before the sentences were handed down

Speaking before the ruling, and expecting to be behind bars, Wong said he wanted to see a "hopeful Hong Kong when I am out [of prison] next year", while Law declared he had no regrets about his activism.

While we know the trio are steadfast in their beliefs, are they physically strong enough to deal with prison life? Look at former chief executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen -- he couldn't even handle two months and he had it really cushy.

Nevertheless we're deeply disappointed in the ruling. Wong and Law had already served their community service sentences that were originally handed down by trial magistrate June Cheung Tin-ngan, along with Chow's suspended three-week jail sentence.

The trio had testified they stormed Civic Square in the hopes of securing talks with then chief executive Leung Chun-ying over the restrictive framework set by Beijing over how Hong Kong would elect its next leader.

The storming of Civic Square led to the Umbrella Movement

Cheung had ruled the case was atypical, and that it called for a more lenient and understanding attitude since the three were young student activists who expressed their demands based on genuinely held political ideals.

At the time she said a deterrent sentence would not be fair.

However, the Hong Kong government wasn't satisfied with the punishment meted out and demanded a judicial review of the sentences, with prosecutors saying they were too lenient and sent the wrong message to young people.

Do those sentences send the wrong message? Are they too lenient? Or do they reveal the government's intentions to bend the law however it sees fit to punish those who try to defy it?

The three will already be punished for life anyway -- they cannot go to the mainland to travel or work, they will never be able to get a proper job in Hong Kong. Financially they are already stymied and they are less than 30 years old.

The government seems heavy-handed in this case, but it's meant to send a warning to others who may think they can take the trio's place to continue the fight.

"The freedom of assembly is never absolute," wrote Wally Yeung, a vice president of the Court of Appeal, who added the court must uphold the importance of public order even though "sentencing ambitious, idealist young people to immediate imprisonment" was not a judgment he made "readily".

Then why did the trio of judges decide on these sentences?

Fellow protest leader Lester Shum says the three plan to appeal their sentences.

On Twitter Wong posted this message soon after his sentence: "They can silence protests, remove us from the legislature and lock us up. But they will not win the hearts and minds of Hongkongers."

Civic Square May Reopen

When young people stormed Civic Square and surrounded by police in 2014

Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor is trying to score some brownie points, the latest being the possibility of re-opening Civic Square at Government headquarters after her predecessor Leung Chun-ying closed it in July 2014.

The shutting of the square inspired young people to climb over the fence and retake the area which resulted in the 79-day Umbrella Movement.

Carrie Lam made election pledge to reopen Civic Square

Lam made a campaign promise to re-open the 1,000-square metre area after relevant management and security studies are completed in three months.

"Even from the perspective of the government's dignity, I think the forecourt outside the east wing of the headquarters should be reopened," she said, adding the new government had adopted an "open and positive" attitude on the matter.

Since Lam is willing to be "open and positive" about this matter, we'll take it.

Interestingly, there is currently a judicial challenge filed in court by retired photojournalist Cheung Tak-wing, who believes Civic Square should be open because it's a government building, which belongs to taxpayers, in other words, the public.

Is Civic Square on public or private property?

However, the government claims that as the landowner, it has the right to exclude the public from using the forecourt.

Lam may declare the area open before the challenge begins in court on August 23, which would make the court case moot, but it would still be interesting to go through the legal challenge so that we all know who is correct in this matter.

Two Years On from Occupy

A large yellow reminder of two years ago for the fight for universal suffrage

Today marks the second anniversary of the Occupy protests that spontaneously broke out at Admiralty, when people were trying to get the activists released who were surrounded by police in Civic Square.

The milestone was marked by a six-metre long yellow banner "I want true universal suffrage" placed on Devil's Peak in Lei Yue Mun by the League of Social Democrats, that was taken down about 90 minutes later.

People gathered at Admiralty tonight to mark the anniversary

And then in the evening at 5.58pm people gathered at Tim Mei Avenue in Admiralty and observed three minutes of silence, the time when the police began spraying tear gas into the crowd.

I was there that afternoon, and told YTSL to come with me. She had just gotten off the plane from Japan and didn't understand what all the fuss was about.

But after we got a snack and I checked my Twitter feed to find out tear gas had been unleashed and we rushed back to see what was going on. We saw a surreal sight of people occupying the Connaught Road overpass and Queensway and refusing to leave. And there were people getting giant barrels of water ready in case the police would fire more tear gas.

We knew the roads would be blocked for a while at least and I remember getting to my great aunt's place in Tokwawan via the Star Ferry and then a bus.

Two years ago this was the initial surreal scene in Admiralty

On the news later that night we saw that Mongkok, Tsim Sha Tsui and Causeway Bay had also been occupied. It was simultaneously shocking and thrilling to hear that ordinary people had taken control of the area -- when was the last time something like this had happened?

They were brave but also determined to stand their ground which made me so proud of them. They were tired of being pushed around by Beijing and the Hong Kong government wasn't representing their interests.

The last straw was the white paper released in August that reiterated there would be no direct elections of the chief executive in 2017. So when would we ever get universal suffrage that was promised to us? They had to stand up for themselves and they did -- for 79 days.

I miss being able to walk along Connaught Road Central and there was such a community spirit there, people were very friendly and eco-conscious, everyone had the same mindset. It was a calm, but also passionate place, especially when there were gatherings to hear speeches.

Eventually evenings would look like this, crowded but friendly

The sad thing is that Occupy will probably never happen again.

But it has spawned a new generation of politically active kids, a few of them even elected into the Legislative Council! Who would have thought that would be possible! Pretty amazing.

So there is hope, but how do we proceed from here? What is the legacy of Occupy and what does it mean to us?

Thanks for the memories that are still vivid two years later. We will never forget that day.

Lenient Sentences for Trio

Joshua Wong, Nathan Law and Alex Chow speak outside the court

Today Joshua Wong Chi-fung, Nathan Law Kwun-chung and Alex Chow Yong-kang can thank their lucky stars today, escaping serious jail time after being convicted for their actions in storming Civic Square in the Hong Kong government headquarters on September 26, 2014, which two days later sparked the Umbrella Movement that lasted 79 days.

The trio were prepared for the worst, as their crimes, unlawful assembly and inciting others to join in unlawful assembly carried the maximum penalty of HK$5,000 and three years in jail.

Wong was handed 80 hours of community service for unlawful assembly, while Law received a sentence of 120 hours of community service for inciting others to join in unlawful assembly.

The three were part of the group that stormed Civic Square

However, Chow was sentenced to three weeks in jail suspended for a years so that he could study his Masters in the UK.

The community service sentence was a relief to Law, who is running for a seat in next month's Legislative Council elections. If he had to go to jail, that could have disqualified him from being a candidate.

It seems Magistrate June Cheung Tin-ngan considered the motives and intentions behind the offence because the case was atypical from other criminal cases. She described the three activists as passionate and genuinely believing in their political ideals.

"If their actions did not originate from personal gain or intent to harm others, the court should not only consider their actions and the consequences, but also try to understand the motivations behind their offence by adopting a more lenient and understanding attitude," she said.

Cheung added a deterrent sentence would not be fair as their actions were relatively moderate compared to political events after the storming.

Two days later the police fired teargas at protesters

"The three defendants' actions were undoubtedly reckless, but they were not very violent nor intentional in harming security guards or police officers," she continued. "They only wanted to enter the east wing forecourt, the Civic Square with a historical and symbolic meaning that they genuinely believe in, to form a circle and chant slogans."

Outside the court, Chow said he found the ruling powerful and that it was a wake-up call for those in power and an important warning to the community that one must consider the motives and political stances behind Hong Kong's different voices.

On Twitter, Wong said: "I was given 80 hours of community service for unlawful assembly. I will not regret for [sic] my commitment in the Umbrella Movement."

Localists and pan-democrats must be relieved the three weren't severely punished, and perhaps the sentences demonstrate the authorities may have gone overboard in arresting anyone they thought was related to the Umbrella Movement in the hopes of jailing as many of them as possible as a lesson.

It'll be interesting to see how these sentences will affect the Demosisto vote on September 4 and if their support grows or wanes.