Leaders of the pro-democracy movement from LegCo, Occupy Central, Scholarism and the Hong Kong Federation of Students. (Laurel Chor/Coconuts Media)
Occupy Central has released a statement calling on the police to stop removing protester barricades after they did so in Admiralty and Mong Kok at around 6am today. The organisers also condemned the violent removal of barricades by “dozens of masked men” this afternoon in Admiralty, urging the police to enforce the law and to protect the peaceful protestors.
The statement goes on to call the government “irresponsible” for not producing any “serious responses” to the movement’s demands in the two weeks since its launch, and blamed “the collusion of political and business interests and [the] small circle monopoly of the legislature and the office of the Chief Executive” for the current situation in Hong Kong.
Earlier, protestors had allegedly offered to open up Queensway in exchange for access to the plaza known as “Civic Square” in front of the Central Government Complex, but the government refused. The leaders of Occupy Central again asked the government to re-open Civic Square, as it would be “an icon of reconciliation”, thus “reducing tension with the population” and “bringing calm to the community”.
Full text of the statement here:
Occupy Central with Love and Peace (OCLP) regrets the police’s removal of some of the barricades set up by the occupy movement this morning. At around noon dozens of masked men then forcefully removed blockades in the Admiralty occupied zone. OCLP condemns these violent actions. We urge the police to enforce the law and prevent certain people from damaging peaceful occupy movement, and avoid any suspicion that the government may be trying to use the masses to attack the masses.
Two weeks have elapsed since the occupy movement made its presence felt, but the administration has produced no serious responses. There is no attempt at accountability for the violent clearance of September 28th. Senior officials played the game of passing the buck, unable to come up with any road map to re-activate the process of political reform. Then the agreed dialogue with students was called off. Such irresponsibility cannot result in anything good for the city. OCLP calls upon the Administration to stop removal of the barricades. What must be removed are the fundamental barriers which cause the present crisis: the collusion of political and business interests and small circle monopoly of the legislature and the office of the Chief Executive. The people are crying out against an unjust system which is barricading Hong Kong’s development into a caring society.
The occupy movement first began as a response to government’s closure of the Civic Square. The administration was of the view that the re-opening of the Square might invite people to congregate, thus affecting the running of the Chief Government Office. Such mindset is a contradiction of the Open Door philosophy which underlines the design of the building in the first place. The closure sets the administration on the opposite side of the people for good. It is against centuries of Chinese political wisdom. The tradition likens the will of the people to flowing water: it is only to be channeled, not blocked. The re-opening of the Civic Square would be an icon of reconciliation, reducing tension with the population, bringing calm to the community. We strongly urge the Administration to give it its serious consideration.
We understand that the current situation might have caused inconvenience to our fellow citizens. The anti-occupy groups’ violence against the occupiers would merely deepen the social contradictions and destroy the fame and the tradition of non-violent disobedience in Hong Kong; your violence would solve no problems. We expect non-violence from protesters of all backgrounds.
We ask the occupiers to stand firm in defending the occupied area and support each others; we also ask you to stand by the principle of non-violent disobedience in face of the police’s clearance. We believe that the success of the movement hinge on our perseverance in the spirit of democracy, love and peace.
OCLP Secretariat
13 October 2014
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