Daily Lessons from Life 29 - 31 August 2014 - HK activists vow civil disobedience campaign

Had too much going on 29 and 30 August 2014 resulting in missed updating of the blog.

"HK activists vow civil disobedience campaign - AFP 31 August 2014

HONG KONG: Hong Kong democracy activists vowed on Sunday (Aug 31) to embark on an "era of civil disobedience" including mass sit-ins after China announced rules giving it control over candidates in the city's next leadership election.

The standing committee of the National People's Congress (NPC), China's parliament, decided that the next chief executive will be elected by popular vote in 2017, but candidates must each be backed by more than half the members of a 1,200-strong "broadly representative nominating committee".

Democracy advocates in the semi-autonomous Chinese city say this means Beijing will be able to ensure a sympathetic slate of candidates and exclude opponents. "This is one person, one vote, but there is no choice. They have that in North Korea but you can't call it democracy," Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau told AFP.

The pro-democracy group Occupy Central said it would go ahead with its threat to take over the city's Central financial district in protest, at an unspecified date.

Hundreds rallied in a park outside the city's legislature late Sunday chanting "No to fake democracy!" and blowing vuvuzelas. "A new chapter is unfolding in Hong Kong. It is an era of civil disobedience," Benny Tai, a co-founder of Occupy, told supporters in front of a stage decked with two large Chinese characters that spelt the word "Disobedience"."

I have a BAD feeling about where this will end!

Lessons for me are:

1. is it a realistic expectation from the pro-democracy Hong Kong folks to expect the mainland Chinese leaders to agree to their demand for a 'free democratic election' of their 'Hkg SAR government'? My answer: unrealistic;

2. it will probably end badly because: the Chinese leadership is already having a lot to worry about 'domestically' and it does not need nor want this SAR to be agitating for 'free democratic election of the local government'. It will NOT accede to the demand for sure as how would it respond to the other provinces and cities and autonomous regions? It will suppress and even oppress with FORCE if need be as the stake is simply too high to be soft-hearted here!;

3. it will be different from the way it is done in the 'infamous and bloody Tiananmen' incident as there are just too many foreigners and foreign capitals in Hkg SAR. Nevertheless, Hkg SAR is part of PRC. This cannot change. So, it will create a lot of issues and that the foreign capitals may just flow to Singapore given our relatively stable situation. Will the foreigners move to Singapore? We probably don't need them though we will welcome the jobs that will be brought to Singapore by the foreign capital! :-)

Let's see how things develop there! Interesting times!!