In Hong Kong , Tens of
Thousands March for Democracy – TIME
Over 500
arrested after Hong Kong democracy rally - USA
Police
accused of heavy-handed treatment of protesters arrested after July 1 march –
South China Morning Post
It is laudable, it is brilliant, and it is there for us to
see. Yes, it is not going to bring any immediate change, and possibly, not even
in the near future. In fact, it can and will bring repression with the state
machinery going tougher on the protesters and pro-democracy factions, parties
and activists.
But, it is symbolically potent, like any such event in China,
an oppressive democracy, is and has been, like the Tiananmen Protests and
Massacre on mainland, like the Annual Tiananmen Vigil on June 4 in Hong Kong,
like the Wukan protests on mainland or like this Annual Handover Day March on
July 1, when Hong Kong was handed over to the Chinese rule 17 years ago.
The island of Hong Kong may be just a city state but being
one of the economic powerhouses of the world and an industrialized and
developed British colony till 1997, it is home to the values the developed
Western economies cherish and that was the central reason behind the autonomy
given to the islanders under ‘one country, two systems’ norms – with local rule
to run the systems except foreign relations and defense.
But, then it was China
And any tyrannical regime is stubbornly imperialist when
it comes to expand geographically or when it comes to claim territories – or
when it comes to transform the culture of the territories to suit its plans,
like China has done in Tibet, like China has done with Falun Gong.
After Hong Kong came
under Chinese sovereignty, the next aim was to make its civil liberties like
the mainland – where no civil liberties exist.
It was never going to be easy in Hong
Kong , with cherished values and atmosphere of self-rule and
autonomy in existence for a long time. Yes, there was no universal suffrage in
spite of the attempts to introduce it. It remained a core issue and now the
Chinese government of Beijing
But this universal suffrage is nothing more than a sham
step where the candidate to be chosen is from the pool proposed by Beijing Beijing
And realizing the real intent, the pro-autonomy and
pro-democracy activists are protesting it. Organizers from the ‘Civil Human
Rights Front’ claim over 5,00,000 protesters came forward to join the sit-in
and participate in the March demanding democratic rights.
Over half-a-million were expected after an unofficial
pro-democracy referendum by ‘Occupy Central with Love and Peace’ was signed by
around 8,00,000 people, almost 10% of the Hong Kong
population.
And though the police claim the turnout to be less than
1,00,000, we can believe in the higher turnout figure even if it was not over
half-a-million.
And the importance of this turnout lies in its symbolic
potential. Though its mention was blacked out on the mainland, such attempts
are increasingly becoming difficult. Access to the information on the Hong Kong life was one of the reasons that had ‘inspired’
many of the Wukan protesters.
And with increased complexity of layers and sub-layers, controlling
the virtual world of social media is going to be as difficult as raising a
pro-democracy demand in Beijing
Yes, the June 4 Vigil or July 1 March are not going to
bring any changes for the mainland China in the future we can foresee now, but
it is going to make developments more intense in Hong Kong as the protesters
have warned for more protests later this year.
And crushing such protests like the Beijing
government does in China
©/IPR: Santosh Chaubey - http://severallyalone.blogspot.com
