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  • Hong Kong is an international city.

  • It is a dynamic city.

  • A financial hub with a diversified culture.

  • But do you know?

  • What is it that Hong Kong is presently fighting for at this very moment?

  • Let’s begin with a brief account flash back of Hong Kong’s history.

  • For over 100 years, Hong Kong has been a British colony.

  • Under British ruling, Hong Kong thrived as the strategic geographical locationbeing the "door to China".

  • In the 1980s, China and the United Kingdom signed a Joint Declaration

  • which sets out how Hong Kong is to be governed after the handover in 1997.

  • On the first of July, 1997, Hong Kong was handed over to China.

  • The Basic Law came into effect.

  • It is the mini constitution which confirms of Hong Kong as China’s Special Administrative Region.

  • Under the Basic Law, Hong Kongers were assured a high degree of autonomy, preservation of its capitalist system for 50 years.

  • Hong Kong people are entitled to choose its own leader.

  • What happened since?

  • Since 1997, the first, second and third Chief Executive of Hong Kong were elected by an election committee.

  • The present Chief Executive, C Y Leung, was elected by 1,200 election committee members.

  • Only a small portion of these members were democratically elected.

  • With a population of over 7 million, Hong Kong is being ruled by C Y Leung, elected with only a vote of 689.

  • What are the consequences if our leader is elected bysmall circleinterest?

  • Ever since the handover, Hong Kong’s policies and political landscape were largely controlled by special interest groups,

  • from the mainland or from powerful businessman.

  • Inequality became worsethe rich becomes richer, and the poor becomes poorer.

  • Property prices rose to a level where many cannot afford to buy their home,

  • but the businessmen prospered and resist all kinds of changes.

  • Under the Basic Law, Hong Kong people are promised the right to have universal suffragethe rights to choose its own leader.

  • But what exactly is the rights to universal suffrage?

  • Rights to nominate, rights to be nominated, and rights to vote.

  • All of them are essential, and not one can be missing.

  • The international standard is that people are born to have equal political rights.

  • What China is trying to do at the moment, to limit the people’s right of nomination.

  • They want to be able to nominate whoever they like, and screen out whoever they do not like.

  • The Chinese government wants a controlled election with a predictable outcome.

  • If people do not have the right to nominate, it is not true universal suffrage.

  • Picking out a rotten apple and a rotten orange,

  • and letting you choose which one is to be eaten, such cannot be true choice.

  • If Hong Kong’s leader is handpicked by the Chinese government,

  • chances are he or she will not genuinely care about what Hong Kong people need.

  • Imbalance and inequality will continue.

  • Hong Kong will gradually become more and more like the Mainland.

  • Will it be that the Chinese-picked Chief Executive uses his or her mandate

  • to impose brainwashing national education on all primary school students?

  • Will the Chief Executive make speech which undermines judicial independence?

  • Will press freedom further deteriorate, and be completely wiped out one day?

  • Can people continue to be able to say bad things about the government without fearing any revenge?

  • Will the Chinese-style corruption become part of Hong Kong’s day to day life?

  • We do not know, but it is very likely to follow if Hong Kong people lose this final chance to choose its own future by picking its own leader.

  • What is being done now?

  • Civil nomination is widely seen in the pro-democracy camp as the protection of the right of nomination

  • All it involves is that a citizen will be able to stand for election after collecting a certain number of nominations from fellow citizens.

  • The threshold is negotiable.

  • Some people see this as the only way which Hong Kong people can be guaranteed with true universal suffrage.

  • From 22 to 29 June 2014, Hong Kong people participated in an informalreferendum’,

  • organized by the Occupy Central with Love and Peace Campaign.

  • More than 700,000 Hong Kong people eligible to have casted their vote to support civil nomination.

  • The bottom line is this: if there is no civil nomination in the proposed methods of electing the Chief Executive,

  • many ordinary citizens will commence a series of civil disobedience activities.

  • These may include occupying the main streets in the heart of Hong Kong’s financial hub, Central,

  • blocking the transport and bringing the day-to-day running of Hong Kong’s financial system to a halt.

  • The aim is to raise international awareness and put pressure on the Chinese government

  • to come to the negotiation table, and give Hong Kong people what they have been promised, that is, true universal suffrage

  • It ought to be highlighted that the core principle of the Occupy Central movement is a non-violent civil disobedience.

  • If the police are to come and arrest the participants, they have vowed not to resist with any violence or with the intention to hurt others.

  • Isn’t there any alternative?

  • No. The government won’t listen to the people’s voices.

  • On the proposal submitted to the Chinese government in respect of the political reform,

  • the Hong Kong government did not represent civil nomination as a mainstream option.

  • On 1 July 2014, more than 500,000 Hong Kongers took it to the street to demonstrate against the Hong Kong government.

  • The demonstration was followed by a peaceful overnight sit-ins at the main financial zone in the heart of the city.

  • Some of them were arrested.

  • Some experienced other consequences.

  • But The 500,000 odd people was simply neglected.

  • The 700,000 odd vote in the informal referendum was likewise neglected and regarded as legally ineffective.

  • How can you take part in helping Hong Kong?

  • We need your concern and awareness on what is going on in Hong Kong.

  • We need your understanding and sympathy on the civil disobedience activities which may happen in Hong Kong,

  • that they are not acts of violence, but purely acts of fighting against an unfair system,

  • that if we really have a choice, no one wants to take it to the street.

  • We need you to spread the words for us.

  • It is the last chance of Hong Kong to remain the way it is.

  • It is the last chance for its people to fight for what they have been promised.

  • It is the last chance for the peace-loving people in Hong Kong to be guaranteed

  • equal political rights and the right to choose its own leader and way of living.

  • We hope you will support us when the time comes,

  • by telling others our story, by voicing out your support on various forums, and to pray for us.

  • Thank you.

Hong Kong is an international city.

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