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500,000 show anger at `stubborn' rulers
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The Standard
2003-07-02
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500,000 show anger at `stubborn' rulers
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by Paris Lord and Cannix Yau
`The government just doesn't listen'
Hundreds of thousands of people marched though the streets of Hong Kong Island yesterday in an outpouring of frustration and anger on a scale not seen since the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
The massive crowd, estimated by organisers at up to 500,000, jammed main roads from Victoria Park to Government Headquarters in Central for more than six hours, chanting slogans including ``Down with Tung Chee-hwa'' and ``Return rule to the people''.
A spokesman for the organisers, Richard Choi, told thousands of protesters in Victoria Park: ``We have had enough.''
Choi, of the Alliance Against Article 23 and the Civil Human Rights Front, added: ``We choose to commemorate the sixth anniversary of the handover to show that Hong Kong people are no longer silent and blindly tolerant.''
Tung said in a statement issued by his office later that he understood the people's concerns and their economic ``pain'', but insisted that the government's stance on human rights and freedoms was the same as theirs.
The size of the march, which started at Victoria Park at 3pm and lasted until 9.30pm, far eclipsed earlier estimates of 50,000 to 100,000.
Police admitted having difficulty getting an accurate figure, but put the number that passed Government Headquarters after 6pm at 350,000.
The last marchers did not leave Victoria Park until 8.30pm.
Although the march had been organised to protest against the imminent passage of the Article 23 anti-subversion law _ and came just a week before the proposed ordinance goes to the Legislative Council _ it was clear the frustrations went beyond that. Some protesters said they were tired of being ignored by the government, some blamed it for soaring unemployment and others demanded an independent inquiry into the handling of the Sars outbreak.
Speaking outside Causeway Bay's Regal Hotel nearly three hours into the march, housewife Amy Siu, 50, said people were ``frustrated'' with the ``stubborn'' Tung administration.
``They make decisions that are good for the government, or good for Beijing, but not for the Hong Kong people,'' she said. ``It seems the government doesn't listen to other voices. Even though we're marching today, they won't listen.''
Several hundred metres behind Siu, secondary school teacher Oscar Tse _ who marched with his parents in 1989 _ said he disapproved of the current political system. ``I'm marching because the government does not represent the people,'' the 29-year-old said as three helicopters hovered above. ``My wife and friends from church are also marching, and my mum will start marching after work, because of Article 23.''
In his statement, Tung said: ``We will continue to actively maintain and protect human rights and freedoms and to gradually develop democracy in accordance with the Basic Law.'' He also reiterated the government's stance that the subversion law would not affect present rights and freedoms.
He called on Hong Kong people to show the unity they had shown in fighting the Sars outbreak to rebuild the economy ``as soon as possible''.
But barrister-legislator Audrey Eu said if the government continued to ignore people's voices and go ahead with the Article 23 legislation, it showed ``the government is really hopeless''.
From early morning, protesters began packing into Victoria Park's grass and bitumen squares, separated by barricades from a football festival celebrating six years of the SAR.
Each time lion dances began on the festival stage, the protesters jeered, whistled and roared, trying to drown out the music. Oblivious to the mass of black T-shirt clad protesters surrounding them, scores of elderly women in bright pink T-shirts and hats line-danced slowly near the stage.
On the other side of the barricades, many young women held battery-operated fans to their faces, trying to beat the 32-degree heat.
Among them was Ms Chan, an executive secretary with a Sha Tin-based multinational company. ``I'm here for freedom of news and freedom of speech,'' the 31-year-old said. ``If it's the end of media freedom in Hong Kong, it's the end of Hong Kong.''
Some protesters sang along to a Cantonese version of We Shall Overcome and other folk songs.
Placards and stickers showed why people marched. ``We love our country, we love Hong Kong, we love freedom of speech,'' one said. Stickers on chests read: ``No rushed laws'' and ``We deserve better.''
Engineering graduate Kevin Ngai, 23, held up a T-shirt reading: ``Mr C H Tung step down please.''
Ngai, who will start job-hunting this month, said he wanted the next Chief Executive to be directly elected.
One marcher, Stanley, who declined to give his surname, said: ``On June 4, we loved our country and went to support it. Now, we're angry with the government. It's not the Article 23 problem, it's the process. The government did not listen to the people.''