HONG KONG — The peaceful protesters occupying the streets of Hong Kong for more than two months have been surprisingly persistent in their pursuit of genuine universal suffrage. It is welcome news that some student leaders are considering bringing the occupation to an end. They are exhausted and have been unwilling to go home without substantial concessions from the Hong Kong and Beijing governments.
Many protesters still think too little has been achieved. They see the lack of concessions from the Hong Kong government as a reason to continue pressing on. I disagree. The Umbrella Movement has awakened the democratic aspirations of a whole generation of Hong Kong people. In this sense, we have achieved much more than what we could have hoped for.
There are clear signs that the occupation is losing public support. In the latest poll conducted by the University of Hong Kong, close to 80 percent of the respondents did not support the continuation of the occupation. That does not mean that support for genuine universal suffrage is in decline but that more supporters are questioning the effectiveness of prolonging the occupation.
It’s also clear that elements of the protest movement are starting to deviate from the original intention of nonviolent civil disobedience. The safety of protesters is now a concern.
The police have clamped down hard on protesters recently, and increasingly police officers on the front lines are out of control, letting their emotions take over. Police violence may provoke violence from protesters. For the sake of the occupiers’ safety, it is time for the protesters to leave their tent city. Occupation is now a high-risk, low-return business.
The Umbrella Generation must regroup and devise a new strategy for winning the support from those Hong Kongers who are still undecided about our democratic future. The occupation has won over as many Hong Kongers as it ever will, and we should consider new ways to convince the public that fighting for full democracy is in their interest. Only when the majority of Hong Kongers are on the side of the democracy movement will the people in power be willing to change the system to make it more just.
Blocking government may be even more powerful than blocking roads. Refusal to pay taxes, delaying rent payments by tenants in public housing estates and filibustering in the Legislative Council, along with other such acts of noncooperation, could make governing more inconvenient. No government can govern effectively if the majority of its people are unwilling to cooperate.
Democratic virtues need to be cultivated throughout the city. More forums on democracy should be organized on the neighborhood level. Through home visits, younger Hong Kongers can meet face-to-face with elderly people living in public housing estates and explain to them the significance of genuine universal suffrage.
It’s also important for practitioners of civil disobedience to bear the legal consequences of breaking the law. This shows that they respect the system of law as a whole but want to expose the injustice of some of the laws.
Many young people have already been arrested for protesting. As the police have not taken any action to arrest the older leaders of Occupy Central with Love and Peace, which I co-founded, we turned ourselves in to the authorities earlier this week. We were not arrested, though the officials stated clearly that my case will be dealt with in strict accordance with the law.
Prosecution in open court would be another opportunity for us to explain to all Hong Kong people the goals and underlying reasons for the acts of civil disobedience we have committed.
But the most powerful weapon in winning democracy for Hong Kong is the people of the Umbrella Generation. Compared with the previous generations of Hong Kong democrats, the young people of today are more aggressive, flexible, creative and much tougher.
These young people grew up in a vastly different Hong Kong from that of their elders, who were raised with much less prosperity and security. For many older people, survival was a daily challenge. Having had that past, older generations prioritize economic security and social order, even though many have transcended the tougher times of their youth.
The younger generations, meanwhile, came of age when economic and physical security were no longer major concerns. Their values reflect this: They focus much more on self-expression, sustainability, fairness and justice.
The end of the occupation will not signal capitulation, especially not for young Hong Kongers, who have had a political awakening over the last several months. An undemocratic system and a lack of effective civic engagement by the government will not satisfy the demands of the Umbrella Generation. A more serious crisis will break out in the future if the source of the problem is not dealt with properly and adequately. And the next outbreak will be fiercer.
Even if the Hong Kong government can successfully force the end of the occupation, it will still have to face the demands of the Umbrella Generation in the years to come. Focusing only on how to clear the streets cannot resolve the deep-seated conflicts that led to the protests.
If we can make full use of the momentum gained in the Umbrella Movement to widen the support and deepen the commitment for true democracy, Hong Kongers will see genuine universal suffrage in a not too distant future.
Benny Tai Yiu-ting, an associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong, is the co-founder of the Occupy Central with Love and Peace movement.