Students carry a defaced picture of Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying during a protest outside his home Thursday. Pic: AP.
While US Vice President Joe Biden claims the US will chase ISIS to the gates of hell, on Thursday evening nearly 4,000 Hong Kong students chased democracy to the gates of the Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying’s mansion in the hills over looking the city.
Holding pro-democracy signs, banners, and a giant head of Leung complete with vampire fangs, the students chanted “CY Leung step down” and demanded that he come out and address the crowd. But not for the first time this week, the Beijing-backed chief executive avoided the confrontation.
In the four days since the week-long boycott of classes got underway, the student movement has shown the potential of employing civil disobedience in taking the fight to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), who recently refused Hong Kong universal suffrage for the 2017 election. In contrast to the more ‘pragmatic’ pro-democracy supporters in Hong Kong, the students are adopting a more assertive approach in challenging for universal suffrage, organising unauthorised marches, mobilising large crowds and challenging public figures such as Leung.
“They (students) defeated the introduction of ‘patriotic’ education into the Hong Kong school curriculum in 2013, so they have a taste of success and some know-how in how to go about achieving it,” said Kong Tsung-Gan, a pro-democracy activist and Occupy Central volunteer who spoke to Asian Correspondent earlier this month. “They are much more savvy and bolder than their older counterparts.”
On Monday, over 13,000 students from 26 higher education institutions are estimated to have gathered in Hong Kong University Campus to initiate the student strike. Each day in Tamar Park in the centre of the city, the students hold public pro-democracy rallies, with over 80 Hong Kong scholars giving lectures promoting democracy to the thousands of students on strike.
(MORE: As students protest, Hong Kong’s mega-rich kowtow to Beijing)
“It was an amazing experience to give a lecture this morning (Thursday) at Tamar Park,” said Dr LUK Kin Ling, a lecturer at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. “We discussed what “real democracy” meant, and I pushed students to think further on how democracy can be practiced in everyday life in gender and sexuality.”
The primary aim of the student strike is to gather support for the civil disobedience campaign and the Occupy Central movement from within Hong Kong. The students, along with the support of university professors, have organised public rallies where they can demonstrate a united and driven pro-democracy front to the Hong Kong public. However, as Beijing holds firm on their decision regarding the framework for the 2017 election, many Hong Kongers feel resistance is futile.
“Some Hong Kong people still feel pessimistic in facing China’s might, holding the view that the Hong Kong people are powerless and not able to resist China,” explained Dr. Benson Wong Wai-Kwok, assistant professor at Hong Kong Baptist University, who also gave a lecture at Tamar Park.
By targeting Beijing’s appointed chief executive, the students are not only sending a message of resistance to the CCP, but demonstrating a weakness of the party in the minds of Hong Kong’s public. Leung’s refusal to meet with the protestors, and his failure to respond to the students’ actions, portrays weakness on his behalf, and exposes a lack of legitimacy on the part of the Hong Kong government which will find it difficult to govern effectively in the future.
“I don’t think CY Leung will make an appearance, as the government is lacking courage and an argument to face the ‘citizens,'” said Kin Ling. “Leung’s silence and unresponsiveness to the students’ demands will only mobilise more people to support the students and further consolidate the Occupy Central movement.”
Another three days remain before the student strike ends, with the baton to be passed to the Occupy Central movement and their October 1 occupation of Hong Kong’s financial district. Will the civil disobedience campaign have another unanswered call from the Hong Kong government, or are Leung and the CCP planning a resounding response?