HONGKONG DEMO

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Hong Kong's Leader 'Can't Promise' Full Democracy Even by 2020
2015-02-02

In a fresh blow to the Occupy Central pro-democracy movement on Monday, Hong Kong's leader warned that there are no guarantees that the city's legislature will move towards full democracy by 2020.

Responding to demands from pan-democratic lawmakers, who hold 24 out of 60 seats in the Legislative Council (LegCo), chief executive Leung Chun-ying said his administration couldn't promise that all lawmakers would be directly elected by 2020, one election away from next year's scheduled poll.

"This isn't something that the current administration can promise," Leung told reporters, adding that Beijing's wishes would have to be obeyed amid huge popular pressure for universal suffrage.

Currently, 30 of LegCo’s 60 seats are directly elected from geographical constituencies, while the remainder is chosen by businesses, professions, labor unions, civic and religious groups.

The abolition of these "functional constituencies" and the direct election of all 60 seats were a key demand of the largely student-led Occupy Central movement last year.

Leung's comments came after thousands of pro-democracy protesters took to Hong Kong's streets on Sunday for the first time after the end of last year's 79-day mass protest and occupation calling for universal suffrage in the former British colony.

While the turnout was much smaller than the crowds that surged onto the streets at the height of the "Umbrella Movement," organizers said public feeling is still at loggerheads with Beijing's plans for future elections in the city.

Maintaining the status quo

Leung said the only alternative to following Beijing's election reform plan is to maintain the status quo, under which the chief executive is chosen by a 1,200-strong election committee handpicked by Beijing, and under which only half of Hong Kong's lawmakers are directly elected.

"That is one of only two options open to us—to make no headway at all," Leung said.

He said elections in 2017 to choose the next chief executive would be implemented according to the Aug. 31 framework laid out by the National People's Congress (NPC), which would permit only candidates vetted by a committee beholden to Beijing to run for the territory's top executive post.

Occupy Central campaigners, many of whom are students, have dismissed the plan as "fake universal suffrage," because pan-democratic candidates are unlikely to be selected.

Pan-democratic lawmakers have threatened to veto the government's electoral reform bill in LegCo in a bid to win further concessions on universal suffrage.

Leung's second-in-command Carrie Lam said there would be no horse-trading with lawmakers over the reform package.

"If we miss this opportunity, then it will actually be a lose-lose situation, because we will have lost the chance to elect a chief executive through universal suffrage," Lam said.

"We will also lose the opportunity to directly elect the whole of LegCo," she told a group of business leaders on Monday.

"To put it simply, you can rest assured that we be making no deals with the pan-democrats over the 2017 elections for chief executive," she said.

Reform plan

Democratic chairwoman and lawmaker Emily Lau called on civil society to reject the NPC's plan outright, and to get together to formulate their own reform plan.

Pan-democratic lawmaker Albert Ho said no talks had been held between government officials and pan-democrats, and that making public comments about possible concessions was a bad idea.

"If you tell people what concessions you might be prepared to make before anyone has even sought you out to discuss it, then people are going to think you'll be prepared to make a whole lot more," Ho said.

"This can't lead to a good outcome."

Meanwhile, political commentator Alex Lo, writing in the South China Morning Post newspaper, said the functional constituencies are "rotten boroughs" impeding the political development of Hong Kong.

"Beijing has drawn an explicit linkage between the functional constituencies in LegCo and the future nomination committee for the chief executive," Lo wrote.

He said the ruling Chinese Communist Party is very unlikely to abolish the functional constituencies, because the concept has inspired the principles on which the election committee is formed.

"If Beijing kills the functional constituencies, it would not only undermine the balance of power in LegCo [between pro-establishment and pan-democratic camps], but the raison d'être of the nomination committee," Lo wrote.

"Those rotten boroughs have become the main stumbling block to political reform."

China has resumed sovereignty over Hong Kong since the 1997 handover using the "one country, two systems" formula, which allows people in the city freedoms not enjoyed by mainland citizens.

While the territory's mini-constitution, the Basic Law, specifies universal suffrage as an eventual goal, Beijing's interpretation is at odds with that of pan-democratic politicians and democracy activists.

Reported by Lin Jing for RFA's Cantonese Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

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[msc_de]

Removal of Tiananmen Crackdown Story Prompts Questions in Hong Kong
2015-02-03   



Journalists and pan-democratic politicians in Hong Kong have hit out a decision by one of the city's most respected newspapers to cancel an article on the 1989 military crackdown on the Tiananmen Square mass protests.

Staff at the Chinese-language Ming Pao newspaper, which removed former editor Kevin Lau last January, have asked the paper's editor-in-chief to explain why he chose to override a unanimous decision on Sunday by the paper's editorial board to run the story on Monday's front page.

The report was based on recently released diplomatic cables from Canada, and included a student's eyewitness account of the bloodshed that ensued when the People's Liberation Army (PLA) cleared the protests with tanks and machine guns.

Ming Pao editor-in-chief Chong Tien-siong has so far made no response to calls for an explanation, and repeated requests for an interview were met with the information that he wasn't in the office on Monday.

According to the paper's staff, Chong initially made no objection to the plan, but later ordered that the Tiananmen story be replaced with a feature about mainland Chinese Internet giant Alibaba as a role model for young, would-be entrepreneurs.

Ming Pao union leader Chum Shun-kin said the story that Chong pulled contained details about the contemporary history of the massacre, including eyewitness accounts of the killing of civilians.

"Maybe some people are thinking that, as editor-in-chief, he has the right to change the front page," Chum told RFA in a recent interview. "But the question is, whether it was reasonable to do so."

"If the entire editorial staff of the newspaper thought that this was a good story, why is he unilaterally ignoring them?"




Questionable judgement

Civic Party lawmaker Claudia Mo said Chong had shown questionable news judgement, and appears to be want to shield Beijing from embarrassment, instead of acting in the interests of the public and protecting their right to information, the Economic Journal reported.

Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau meanwhile called on Chong to explain his actions to staff and readers, as the incident could affect the Ming Pao's credibility.

Hong Kong Journalists' Association (HKJA) spokeswoman Shum Yee-lan called on Chong to "communicate" with his own staff.

"He shouldn't use his power to make changes whenever he feels like it," Shum said.

The HKJA said it had been "concerned" about the Ming Pao after Chong replaced Lau.

"Now, not long after officially taking over, editor-in-chief Chong has suddenly changed the top story," it said in a statement on its website.

"This association believes that, in using his power as editor-in-chief to make unilateral and concrete decisions, Chong Tien-siong has taken leave of the current system in the editorial department," it said.




Erosion of freedoms

Under the terms of its 1997 handover to China, the former British colony was promised the continuation of its existing freedoms and a "high degree of autonomy."

But journalists and political commentators say Hong Kong's formerly free press is seeing its "darkest days" yet in what is likely a harbinger of further erosion of the city's traditional freedoms.

In a recent annual report, the HKJA pointed to a series of "grave attacks, both physical and otherwise in the past 12 months," including a brutal knife attack on former Ming Pao editor Kevin Lau, the sacking of Commercial Radio talk-show host Li Wei-ling and the removal of other prominent journalists from senior editorial positions.

Advertising boycotts by major companies and the refusal of licenses to pro-democracy media, and a major cyberattack on the Apple Daily website in June, have also been cited as reasons for concern.

A former Hong Kong talk show host who quit his job amid fears for his personal safety said last month that the threat to press freedom in the city had become apparent as early as 2004, seven years after the handover.

Albert Cheng, who once hosted the free-ranging political discussion show Teacup in a Storm, said he had been threatened physically that year, and later resigned from the show.



Frog in a saucepan

On Jan. 15, Cheng wrote in the South China Morning Post that the territory was like a frog in a saucepan of water that is heating up slowly.

"When the poor amphibian finally senses danger, it is too late to jump out," Cheng wrote in a response to the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris.

"We in Hong Kong are acting like the metaphorical frog," wrote Cheng, whose raucous chat show with its jaunty theme tune and tea-pouring sound-effect was once a feature of daily life in the city.

"Self-censorship, physical intimidation, brutal attacks and pressure from the authorities are rampant in the local media arena," he wrote. "Freedom of speech and the press has been on a gradual, slippery slope."

"Our collective inability, or unwillingness, to react swiftly to such threats will only end in one result," Cheng wrote. "Before long, there will be a boiled frog in the pot."

Reported by Hai Nan for RFA's Cantonese Service, and by Shi Shan for the Mandarin Service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.