Prominent Hong Kong activist says protesters need to unify, strategize
Hong Kongs pro-democracy protest organizers need to rethink their strategy and bring disparate factions together under a new structure to help lead the movement forward, a prominent left-wing lawmaker from the semiautonomous city urged this week. Failure to do so, he warned, would squander a historic opportunity.
Every day that passes by, we waste another opportunity. Without leadership, the crowds wont stick around long, said Leung Longhair Kwok-hung, chairman of the League of Social Democrats.
If you want to achieve a goal in the long term -- in this case, true democracy in Hong Kong -- you need to unify all powers who are fighting for this goal and establish a platform to let them all participate, he told the Los Angeles Times. In that way, you are representing all supporters.
A variety of groups coalesced behind the democracy sit-ins, including Occupy Central With Peace and Love and two student groups: Scholarism and the Hong Kong Federation of Students.
Leaders of those three main groups have expressed mutual support and have all spoken frequently to the crowds of protesters. But many people who have joined the demonstrations over the last month say theyre not allied with any of those organizations and have spontaneously joined the protests.
The diffuse nature of the protest leadership may have helped perpetuate the demonstrations but also has limited protesters ability to forcefully unite and agree on a strategy to bring more pressure to bear on government authorities.
Leungs remarks came as two founders of Occupy Central, university professors Benny Tai and Chan Kin-man, announced they have resumed their university teaching duties after a month spent mainly at the protest zone in the Admiralty district, near government headquarters.
Tai told reporters this week that the move does not indicate a retreat and said he and Chan would continue spending a lot of time in Admiralty. But one senior member of Occupy Central, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the issue, said differences between the protest leaders contributed to their decision to go back to work.
"They have different views about how to lead the movement forward," said the member, adding that the advice of Occupy Central founders had been repeatedly ignored by the student groups.
Hong Kong, a former British territory, returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a framework known as one country, two systems. Terms of the handover included a gradual move toward fully democratic elections and a high degree of political autonomy from Chinas Communist rulers for 50 years.
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Prominent Hong Kong activist says protesters need to unify, strategize