Silent majority taking back Hong Kong’s politics

[JSCh]

Silent majority taking back Hong Kong’s politics - Global Times

Silent majority taking back Hong Kong’s politics
Source:Global Times Published: 2014-7-21 22:33:01

Hong Kong's "silent majority" has finally decided to speak out as the opposition's Occupy Central campaign gains momentum. On Saturday, over 1,100 organizations in Hong Kong launched a month-long signature drive to oppose Occupy Central. In the first two days, over 380,000 people have signed up at more than 400 street-side booths. The goal is 800,000 signatures.

The so-called online referendum organized by the Hong Kong opposition claimed to have seen about 800,000 votes cast, a number which the public called into serious doubt. Some analysts believe that the anti-Occupy Central signature campaign will be more convincing, because asking signatories to show their identification before signing will make the result more credible.

For a long time, the Hong Kong opposition has played a predominant role in setting the agenda for the city's public opinion and determining the direction of Hong Kong street politics. As a result, they have been able to create the false impression that all of Hong Kong stands behind their efforts.

Occupy Central will wreak havoc on Hong Kong's order and stability. As one of Asia's leading financial centers, this outcome will no doubt come at the cost of ordinary Hongkongers.

In most civil societies, mainstream voices are usually expressed through normal, institutional outlets, leaving the streets to radical groups.

As long as they are backed by Western public opinion, Hong Kong's opposition will continue to hold to the illusion that their clamor is truly representative of the broader public.

Hong Kong's mainstream forces need to take the initiative and show their strength on the streets. It is their responsibility to present an accurate portrayal of Hong Kong public opinion.

There are those who worry that a decision by the pro-establishment camp to take a tit-for-tat approach toward the oppositions will push Hong Kong society nearer to the brink of serious division.

However, Hong Kong has a long tradition of separating fact from fiction through constructive confrontations. Only by directly confronting the opposition can Hong Kong's stability be guaranteed.

Now that the signature campaign is underway, Hong Kong's opposition has started to feel the heat, and have taken steps to downplay its significance.

This is proof that the campaign is having its desired effect, serving as a turning point for Hong Kong's silent majority to begin speaking out.

We hope that the signature drive will serve as a catalyst for a more truthful, more balanced, more beneficial public discourse in the territory.

 

[JSCh]

Shocking turnout of anti-Occupy backers - The Standard

Shocking turnout of anti-Occupy backers
Kenneth Lau and Jessica Cheng
Monday, July 21, 2014

An anti-Occupy Central signature campaign has collected around 380,000 names since it kicked off on Saturday.

The spokesman for the pro-Beijing Alliance for Peace and Democracy said those who signed up belonged to different groups, including children, secondary school and university students, the elderly, office staff, celebrities and maids.

Of the 178,144 who signed up yesterday, 211 were not Hong Kong residents.

The alliance collected about 200,000 signatures from 400 booths on Saturday. The campaign will last until August 17.

Organizer Robert Chow Yung said: "It is a shocking record. That means a lot of Hong Kong people are really angry because they are misrepresented."

The mock civil referendum on political reform by Occupy Central, conducted by the University of Hong Kong's Public Opinion Programme, collected about 790,000 votes.

Chow discounted an observation that workers at some booths did not check the identities of people who were signing, saying only a "small number of booths were problematic."

Occupy Central organizer Chan Kin-man said the alliance's signature campaign did not have a mechanism to spot duplication of signatures. Chan said, by his observation on Saturday, there were many loopholes in the system.

But Chow said he had reiterated to all the staff that they must verify the identity of people signing.

Among those who joined the campaign was a man surnamed Yeung, who said: "A minority of radical youngsters who do not really contribute anything to society are hijacking prosperous Hong Kong, which was created by taxpayers like me."

Nam Ma-chung said residents "should follow the regulations of China." Another who joined the campaign, Chow Yuen-yu, added: "We need peace and should not initiate unnecessary actions to disturb order in our society."

 

[JSCh]

The pro-Beijing anti-occupy central polls started a week ago.

Today, I search through google, and cannot find a single major newspaper in the west that report this event.
A poll that sought to represent voices of a significant no. of the people of Hong Kong.

That silence is deafening.

Hong Kong silence majority would remain silence to the west.

 

[JSCh]

ok I found one, relegate to a blog on New York Times.

http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com...ries-tapping-into-hong-kongs-silent-majority/

Campaign Tries Tapping Into Hong Kong’s ‘Silent Majority’
By ALAN WONG July 21, 2014 9:50 amJuly 22, 2014 1:33 am

A volunteer put a signed form into a ballot box during the anti-Occupy Central campaign organized by the Alliance for Peace and Democracy in Hong Kong.Credit Bobby Yip/Reuters

A campaign aiming to deter a mass protest by those who favor a more direct election of Hong Kong’s top leader collected 380,000 signatures in its first two days. That puts it on a path to challenge the more than 700,000 votes of support the Occupy Central With Love and Peace movement received in an unofficial referendum last month.

Robert Chow, a spokesman for the new campaign, called the Alliance for Peace and Democracy, said that turnout since the signature collection began on Saturday had been overwhelming and that this would be a chance for Hong Kong’s “silent majority” to speak up against Occupy Central, which has threatened to stage a sit-in protest in the Central financial district if procedures to elect the next leader of the semi-autonomous Chinese territory are not revised to grant the public greater say over who can run.

 

[Raphael]

Sounds like ordinary HKers don't want their economy to be disrupted by rioters and anarchists on a foreign payroll. I hope they reclaim their city.

 

[ChineseTiger1986]

Yep, kick those trolls out, then HK's economy will come back to the track.

 

[Lux de Veritas]

Sounds like ordinary HKers don't want their economy to be disrupted by rioters and anarchists on a foreign payroll. I hope they reclaim their city.

Yep, kick those trolls out, then HK's economy will come back to the track.

Since 1999, HKD tank 30% versus Singapore dollar. Right now, PRC forum are rabidly cursing HK parasites and despising HK. Its time HK folks reclaim their city.

 

[JSCh]

New poll takes HK radicals off high horse - Global Times

New poll takes HK radicals off high horse
Source:Global Times Published: 2014-7-28 0:33:01

A petition conducted by the Alliance for Peace and Democracy in Hong Kong opposing the recent Occupy Central campaign has now reached 930,000 signatures, as of Sunday night. It exceeded the 780,000-strong signatures collected by Hong Kong opposition groups endorsing their Occupy Central event. Leung Chun-ying, Chief Executive of Hong Kong, also announced to the public that he would sign a petition against Occupy Central.

This is the first time that a pro-establishment camp has launched such a high-profile poll on the streets, and the response it got overtook that of the pan-democracy camp, which had been claiming itself as the representative of Hong Kong public opinion.

Now the anti-Occupy Central campaign has revealed the pluralism of Hong Kong society, and dealt a heavy blow to these pan-democracy groups, which are obsessed with hi-jacking public opinion to pursue their own interests.

The immediate conclusion we can get from this poll is that the majority of Hongkongers are in favor of social stability. Many analysts also believe that the result of the so-called Occupy Central referendum in late June was exaggerated. Mainstream society has a mild position on the 2017 general election.

Some worry that Hong Kong might be mired in a social split as two groups will engage in a tit-for-tat struggle after the two signature campaigns. But we believe it is a necessary and timely effort to reveal the true image of Hong Kong's public opinion. It will produce more positive influences than negative.

In transitional societies, the trump card held by radical opposition groups is public opinion, in the name of which they fire aggressively at governments and mainstream societies. Hong Kong, a highly-developed business community, has been beset by these people in recent years.

The opposition groups have created a false image of Hong Kong to the outside world - a place where people have lost faith in the central government and Hong Kong's political reform, and the majority will fight for "freedom and democracy" at all costs, even at the cost of Hong Kong's stability and prosperity.

This misinformation has distorted the true image of Hong Kong. Hong Kong seems to have changed into an irrational and extreme society, which has posed grave threats to political reform.

Sometimes, social harmony can only be acquired through competition, and the logic is also applicable in Hong Kong.

Facing the growing street politics which disguises itself with the veneer of public opinion, mainstream society should gain the upper hand to voice their opinions and make the opposition groups go back to where they belong.

Hong Kong is a city of hope, and the mainland will never cease to be its supporter. Considering that social distractions keep increasing within the society, it is time that Hong Kong's real public opinion should be heard, even if it is via the methods that the opposition groups used to employ.

 

[Kolaps]

HK and Taiwan issues are far more complex that what foreign media try to say.

It's far more than just Democracy+Independent vs CCP Dictatorship.

 

[JSCh]

Finally the silent majority of the Hong Kong people has spoken.

With 930,000 vote and going.

Better than the final vote count of 780,000 vote of the pan-democracy faction.

Still there are no report I could find in western newspaper.

I guess the silent majority of HK would stay silence to people in the west and possibly rest of the world.

HK and Taiwan issues are far more complex that what foreign media try to say.

It's far more than just Democracy+Independent vs CCP Dictatorship.

I agree that there are far more issues involved that only democracy+independent vs CCP governance. But like any conflict resolution, there has to be give and take from both sides.

 

[dlclong]

These than those who engage in a clown bearer unlimited online voting is more real,
Before the clowns do online voting, infinite brush ticket

 

[Nan Yang]

Since 1999, HKD tank 30% versus Singapore dollar. Right now, PRC forum are rabidly cursing HK parasites and despising HK. Its time HK folks reclaim their city.

Isn't the HKD peg tightly to the USD ?

 

[Lux de Veritas]

Isn't the HKD peg tightly to the USD ?

It is but that does not mask the fact that HKD is losing value versus SGD. Such thing happen in the past, but it is fully compensated by HK wages rising faster than currency depreciation.

 

[Nan Yang]

It is but that does not mask the fact that HKD is losing value versus SGD. Such thing happen in the past, but it is fully compensated by HK wages rising faster than currency depreciation.

I am not a financial expert but isn't it more correctly to say SGD has strengthen against the USD. Since HKD is peg tightly to the USD it just get drag along. Blame US.

Hong Kong should just convert to Chinese RMB.

 

[Lux de Veritas]

I am not a financial expert but isn't it more correctly to say SGD has strengthen against the USD. Since HKD is peg tightly to the USD it just get drag along. Blame US.

Yes. HK economy is doing well. Blame USA.