Daily Lessons from Life 24 October 2014 - Hong Kong protesters to hold street vote

"Hong Kong protesters to hold street vote - AFP  Oct 24, 2014

HONG KONG - Hong Kong's democracy activists are planning a street vote to gauge protesters' views on conciliatory offers from the government, as the city's former leader on Friday called on them to clear the streets.

The leaders of the mass demonstrations that have paralysed parts of the city for nearly a month said they will poll demonstrators at the main protest camp opposite government headquarters on Sunday evening.

During face-to-face talks Tuesday with student leaders, government negotiators offered to write a report to Beijing detailing protester sentiments. They also suggested both sides could set up a joint committee to discuss further political reform beyond the next leadership elections in 2017. The student leaders initially dismissed the offers as lacking substance but have since decided to conduct a straw poll of voters to decide on their next move.

Plans for the vote came as former leader Tung Chee-hwa called the protests a "gross violation", warning that the consequences of continuing the rallies beyond a month were "very serious"."

For any practical and pragmatic person, this is a good compromise!

Lessons for me are:

1. no matter how many thousands people turned up at the protest sites, supposedly 3 mainly, it CANNOT claim to be the MAJORITY as Hkg SAR supposedly has more than 8m people! So, if democracy means respecting the wishes of the MAJORITY, the protest leaders and the protesters HAVE TO concede;

2. the compromise is a VERY GOOD step-down with FACES SAVED for the protest leaders and the protesters. It should be quite clear to them that the 'neutrals' are getting a bit impatient with the disruption of the NORMAL commercial and social life created by the month long protests. It is CLEAR that due to other consideration by the Central Government in PRC, the leadership there SIMPLY cannot accede to the protesters' demand of 'free election' at this stage of the Hkg SAR development. The Chinese has a saying: 'When the going is good, take it and go!' Hopefully the protesters can grab this opportunity to step down their efforts!;

3. while this 'street vote' among the protesters is a good gesture, I am sceptically that it will get a 'Let's go home and let life resume normalcy' majority because the PROTESTERS are by and large already biased towards having the 'our demand MUST be MET' mind-set. The 'street vote' MAY end up been used as a 'see the protesters ALL or the majority of them WANT to continue to press for the FULL demand be met'! When this happened, it is just going to deepen the deadlock and lead to some unintended consequence.

For the authority, the 'occupation' of the 3 sites are CLEARLY violation of the laws of the land. Even if it is so-called 'non-violence and peaceful', it is still a violation of the laws. In the process of removing the protesters by force, should it be seen as 'resisting lawful dispersion' or should it be seen as 'authority using force against peaceful non-violent protesters'?

For the neutrals, the answer is quite clear-cut. Lawful regulation and peace MUST BE maintained. The law enforcement agencies and the officers MUST do their job, even if it means using some forces; with unavoidable collateral damages.

I hope the protesters can see this. I hope this saga can end peacefully for now as Hkg SAR is NOT winning with this deadlock prolonging!