A historic election day in Hong Kong

Not a line for bargains at the local ParknShop 

supermarket or, for that matter, any shop or store!

Rather, people queued up for hours today to cast their vote in

the only fully democratic city-wide election that Hong Kong has

And the campaigning continued well into the later part of the day

I got up earlier than usual this morning to vote for the first time in the District Council Election.  (The previous time I was eligible to do so, the (pro-Beijing) candidate in my area had run unopposed.)  In the days leading up to it, messages were shared online (and on Lennon Walls) urging people to go and vote early, in case they got prevented from doing so later in the day.  With memories too of long lines late into the night at Taikoo Shing and Lam Tin for the 2016 Legislative Council elections, I figured it would indeed be better to get over to my local polling station closer to 7.30am (the polling start time) than 10.30pm (the polling closing time).   

As it turned out, I ended up waiting in line for more than one and a half hours to cast my vote.  It was quite the contrast to the previous occasions when I had voted in Hong Kong.  On each of them, I had just walked into the polling station and been done with the whole process in less than 10 minutes!   Yet today, my experience was the rule rather than the exception; with other friends sharing about having joined long queues at their respective designated polling stations too -- though there was one who stated rather smugly that when she went to vote at around 4pm, she got to breeze in and out in far less time than it had taken her husband, who had opted to go cast his vote in the morning!

It's not just that lots of people went earlier than usual to vote today though but, rather, that lots more people went to vote today than is usually the case for District Council elections.  In the past, many people didn't place much importance on these elections because the District Councils are the lowest tier of government in Hong Kong.  But their significance has latterly been realized on account of such as their being the only fully democratic elections in Hong Kong (unlike that for the Legislative Council, never mind Chief Executive) -- and as such, can be utilized as a referendum on the Hong Kong government as a whole -- as well as there being practical benefits to winning seats on, and control of, District Councils.      

By 9.30pm, more than 2.85 million people -- that is, 69 percent of the electorate -- had cast their votes.  With unprecedented numbers of people turning out to vote today, hopes are high that there will be a large number of pro-democrat victories; this especially since some of the highest voter turnouts have been in areas that have seen lots of protest (and negative action by riot police).  

At the same time though, there are some fears about the record voter turnout; with the possibility of phantom voters definitely existing along with vote rigging.  And, already, there's ample evidence of the usual shenanigans pulled by the pro-Beijing camp: namely, vote buying and the distribution of all manner of goodies to those who vote for them.  Also, as if that's not shameless enough, there's their instructing elderly people who don't seem to be entirely sound of mind who to vote for at polling stations.      

Additionally, despite Electoral Affairs Commission chairman Barnabas Fung declaring that "Everyone has to queue up to enter the polling station, and there's no priority or preference given to anyone", there apparently were people who got to vote at a different polling station from their designated one (on account of their being wheelchair users) over in Kennedy Town.  And I am pretty sure that I saw elderly people and the family members accompanying them getting to jump the (very long) queue at my polling station this morning!  

So I think it's understandable then that I still am feeling really tense even though polling closed some time back.  And seeing the number of riot police in the area around my polling station (which happens to be located just a few minutes' walk away from my residence) increase from two this morning to about eight this afternoon to at least a dozen in the evening doesn't help me feel relaxed either.  

Call me paranoid but I'm still deciding whether to close all my windows tonight (in case tear gas gets fired in my area) or not (because my place would get stuffy with the windows closed).  Also, after posting this blog entry, I plan to go and watch the votes being counted at my polling station.   

Still, rather than end things on a depressing note, here's stating that: If nothing else, the high voter turnout at today's District Council election clearly shows that Hong Kong people want to have a say with regards to their government. Fingers crossed for the news tomorrow to be further in favor of democracy.  And as it is, it's really nice that this has been the first tear gas free weekend Hong Kong has had in quite some time!

Drama going to and after movie screenings this month in Hong Kong

Some bricks missing from pavements in Tsim Sha Tsui

Meanwhile, extra bricks lie by the side of other sidewalks 

Also in the area: a shoddy looking attempt to fill back a hole?

Not so long ago, going to watch a movie at the Broadway Cinematheque in Yau Ma Tei didn't involve much drama.  A good measure of how different Hong Kong has become during the present unrest though is that even a seemingly mundane activity like cinema-going can feel quite fraught with danger these days.  

As an example: back on the evening of November 8th, I emerged from a Hong Kong Asian Film Festival (HKAFF) screening at the Broadway Cinematheque to find a text message on my phone from a friend alerting me to black flag (tear gas) warnings having been hoisted and a police officer having fired a live round not too far away from the multiplex!  Then, one week later, I learnt of the cancellation of another HKAFF screening I had bought a ticket for on account of the cinema having to close earlier than scheduled that day.  

After learning that the HKAFF had scheduled a "make up" screening for that film, I decided that I had to go to it -- even though this new showtime was at 9.45pm, one of my least favorite movie time slots.  As the screening day approached, my enthusiasm for that scheduled screening time sank some more upon certain events (primarily, the siege of PolyU) and circumstances (specifically, the closing of the Cross Harbour Tunnel) making it so that I would not be able to get to and out of Yau Ma Tei using my favored mode of transport for those purposes.

If the film concerned wasn't M for Malaysia, I would have just given up there and then.  But I really wanted to see this documentary about last year's Malaysian election miracle; this especially since I figured it'd provide me with some inspiration to continue fighting for genuine universal suffrage here in Hong Kong, ahead of tomorrow's District Council elections.    

In lieu of the routes of the two direct bus options currently being suspended, I ended up taking two different buses plus the Star Ferry over to Yau Ma Tei and then three different buses home (since the Star Ferry would have already ended service for the night by the time I'd get to Tsim Sha Tsui after the screening).  Making my journey to the Broadway Cinematheque seem more hazardous was that, on the bus from Tsim Sha Tsui further up the Kowloon Peninsula, I passed by sections of the city which looked shockingly torn up -- so shocking, in fact, that I ended up returning to the area earlier today to confirm in broad daylight what I had seen last night.       

As for what happened after last night's screening: as I made my way to Nathan Road to catch the first of three buses I'd be taking home, I passed by a woman screaming at workers near a closed MTR exit.  I didn't stay to find out what the commotion was about but I wouldn't be surprised if she was upset to find that the MTR had closed for the day earlier than she thought would be the case.  

Then, shortly after I got onto that first bus, a number of police vans with lights flashing rushed northwards, presumably to nearby Mongkok and Prince Edward (which the driver of the bus taking me to Yau Ma Tei earlier in the evening told me that his bus would be bypassing).  More than incidentally, a friend told me there have been nightly protests in those areas for weeks, maybe even months, now -- and that they are so much of the new "norm" that there's not much press coverage of them anymore! 

On the same bus heading out of Yau Ma Tei, I encountered two befuddled tourists who hadn't realized the MTR would be closing before 1am and seemed pretty lost in general.  They can count themselves lucky that this week in Hong Kong hasn't been as bad as the previous week (even with the tragedy that is the siege of PolyU going on and protests still taking place).  Even so, I would highly recommend that if you're going to visit Hong Kong anytime soon, do be sufficiently aware of the current situation by doing such as reading up on what's (been) happening here before you come over and consulting knowledgeable locals while you're here!   

Peaceful protests against the odds in Central and beyond

Lunchtime protest in Central earlier this week

The protest attracted a number of riot police,

some armed with submachine guns

Threats were issued but the crowds didn't disperse 

until it was time to head back to work!

The siege of PolyU (as the Hong Kong Polytechnic University is popularly known) in not yet over; with a number of holdouts still on campus -- including a cook adamant that the food situation, at least, is not as bad as some people have made out.  Still, the general sense appears to be that it's but a matter of time before this particular section of this protracted protest movement will conclude; this even while the ongoing pro-democracy protests still have quite a bit of life in them.

Every day thus far this week, there have been protests taking place at lunchtime in various parts of Hong Kong, with Central being at the, well, center, of it all.  On Tuesday and Wednesday, the riot police arrived at the scene soon after to try to shut down the protests.  I was there on Tuesday and while it's true enough that the riot police quickly got people off the roads, large crowds ended up occupying the surrounding sidewalks and were pretty vocal in expressing their disdain for the police as well as their seeking "Five demands, not one less".   

For the record: I had never heard "Diu lei lo mo" shouted by so many people (at the police) at the same time before -- and most definitely not by such a generally well-dressed crowd (We're talking three piece suits in some cases for the men and designer wear and heels for the women here) too!  Also, I have to admit to some of the asides I heard being made between friends tickling my funny bone!

First off were the disdainful remarks made about the thuggish riot police having too low an education to be able to understand as well as speak English -- which then prompted a suggestion to "Let's shout at them in English!"  Then there was the genuine astonishment of a wide-eyed woman who pointed to the riot police before theatrically proclaiming to all around her: "They really aren't wearing ID tags!"  (After one of the officers aimed a glare at her, her friend literally pulled her away and, fortunately, spirited her off to safety!)

And after of the riot police appearing to shut down their street protests on the two previous days, Central's lunchtime crowd changed tactics today and held a protest singalong inside the IFC Mall instead!  What with it being the four month anniversary of the Yuen Long Triad attacks, there also was a sit-in held in that northwestern New Territories town this evening, during which the "Five demands, not one less" chant also rang out.

Lest it not be obvious: the above-mentioned protests were peaceful ones (despite the police often seeming wanting to make them otherwise).  The reason why I want to emphasize this is that many people -- inside and outside of Hong Kong -- still don't seem to realize that there have been a whole lot of peaceful protests in Hong Kong over the past six months or so!

Returning to the people still holed up at PolyU: while the government is wont to deem everyone there to be rioters, there reportedly are a number of non-protesters -- never mind non-rioters -- there.  Call me biased but the general sense is that there are a heck of a lot wrongly accused as well as plain wronged civilians amidst all this business.  So please spare a thought for them, including those people who were arrested by the police during the siege of PolyU, then put on trains headed to who knows where: possibly across the border to Mainland China, to suffer a worse ordeal and fate than Simon Cheng (since their illegal -- if they were indeed sent to Mainland China -- abduction does not appear to have gotten much international attention as yet). 

Protesting while watching football and cheering for the Hong Kong national team

Two national anthems were played before the association 

football match at Hong Kong Stadium tonight

 The Hong Kong national football team 

scored its first goal in the first half

They managed to score a goal too in the second half! :)

Before anything else: here's confirming that, contrary to my truly pessimistic expectations, the police siege of Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) is still ongoing.  This is not to say though that the news coming out of there has been all that great.  To the contrary, in fact, as reports, video footage and images galore have attested to terrible things having occured in the past 72 hours or so in the area, including the police reneging on their promises to let people leave unharmed by firing tear gas and rubber bullets as well as effecting arrests in a thoroughly brutal fashion.

So it might seem callous of me to have gone and attended the football match at Hong Kong Stadium this evening between Hong Kong and Cambodia -- except that this World Cup Qualifier was listed on the Hong Kong protest schedule and was arguably one of a number of events these past few days that many people took part in with the hope of causing at least some riot police to be diverted to them, and away from the besieged university.

Yesterday (and especially last night), thousands of people went to central Kowloon to try to create diversions for and also to rescue people trapped at PolyU.  At lunchtime today as well as yesterday, office workers and others protested in Central -- but while it's true enough that protesters were quickly forced off a street they had occupied onto neighboring sidewalks today, their actions resulted in a good number of riot police spending some time in Central rather than, as might have been the case, on the other side of Victoria Harbour.    

Returning to the subject of tonight's football match: here's confirming that I did indeed encounter riot police on duty on the way to and into its venue.  Also, here's confirmation of there being lots of pro-democracy supporters as well as football fans in the crowd came by way of the booing of the Chinese national anthem (which, officially, also is Hong Kong's but really isn't accepted as being so) when it was played before kick off,  the belting out of Glory to Hong Kong more than once this evening, and protest chants reverberating through the stadium along with more football match specific ones.  And even with the latter, shouts of "We are Hong Kong" and "Fight for Hong Kong" are impossible to think of as being non-political in current circumstances. 

At the same time though, I have to admit to having genuinely enjoyed watching the football and being at the game; this not least since Hong Kong ended up notching its first World Cup Qualifying Match victory in five attempts by scoring two goals while not letting in any from Cambodia.  A week after I had broken down and wept upon learning what was happening at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a day after I had gotten so upset about what was happening at PolyU that -- strange but true -- I actually felt the top of my head heat up, it was nice to be able to cheer on Hong Kong, and see at least its football team triumph after having endured a number of losses over the past few months.     

More agony for Hong Kongers on International Students' Day

Hong Kong is burning on the 30th anniversary

of the start of the Velvet Revolution :(

Messages on a cardboard mock-up of the Berlin Wall

erected this evening in Edinburgh Place, Hong Kong

What many Hong Kongers want

In a since superseded November protest schedule for Hong Kongers, there had been plans to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall with a rally at Edinburgh Place on November 9th.  But the death of Alex Chow Tsz-lok on the morning of the day before put a stop to what would have been a happy as well as peaceful protest event.  

Although Hong Kong's troubles have continued into this week -- and, in the eyes of many (including myself) actually increased in intensity and seriousness -- no such decision was made to cancel a rally at Edinburgh Place this evening to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the beginning of Czechoslovakia's Velvet Revolution (and defacto beginning of the end of Communism in Eastern Europe).  And while public transport problems had caused me to abandon plans to attend a rally in support of, and to praise, Hong Kong's firefighters and ambulance workers on Thursday night, I arrived in Central this evening with sufficient time to peruse the messages written and plastered on a cardboard wall that had been erected there, and even add a couple of my own!   

A few minutes after 7pm, the rally officially began with announcements, including of the main themes of today's event, in Cantonese and English (with sign language interpretation also utilized at the rally).  A video was also screened which began with a look at Eastern Europe in the years immediately after the Second World War, included film footage showing the emergence and rise of Poland's Solidarity along with the creation as well as fall of the Berlin Wall, and ended with a recap of recent events in Hong Kong.

Also shown at the event were video recordings of what took place over in Mainland China in the summer of 1989.  And it once more tore at my heart to see idealistic students with little idea of what lay ahead for them and their country on June 4th of that year as well visual documentation of the massacre that Hong Kongers have continued to commemorate and mourn even while many Mainland Chinese can't, won't or are outright ignorant about.  

Three other things compounded the agony of this evening's re-watch of the massacre of students by the People's Liberation Army 30 years ago.  First was the fact that we were doing so just meters away from the Hong Kong headquarters of the same military force under the absolute control of the Chinese Communist Party.  Second was the same People's Liberation Army having ventured out into the streets of Hong Kong yesterday afternoon for what was clearly a propaganda stunt that I sincerely hope that the vast majority of Hong Kongers can see through (and thus react to with horror).  

Most upsetting of all was that midway through this evening's events, participants were sharing images posted online of Hong Kong Polytechnic University in flames (on the evening of what happens to be International Students' Day) and messages of the Hong Kong police having threatened the protesters there with the use of lethal force, resulting in an exodus of a good portion of the rally's crowd -- presumably to head over to try to help out the beleaguered protesters over across Victoria Harbour.  In all honesty, this was one of those occasions when one gets incredibly tempted to cease being a wo lei fei (peaceful, rational, non-violent) protester and one could sense the frustration and shame of people who elected to stay at Edinburgh Place and be so.  

A friend visiting from Germany invoked the protests led by Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King last night as examples of successful non-violent movements and why Hong Kong protesters should eschew violence.  But when I asked her if she thought Gandhi or King would have been successful against the Nazis, she fell silent.  

And yes, I know that it can seem like a cheap shot to some to compare Communist China to the Nazis.  On the other hand, one can't deny that Communist Chinese leaders have been responsible for a whole lot of atrocities and deaths, including of democracy-seeking university students and their supporters at Tiananmen Square.  Also, it can't be too much exaggeration to state that, after what happened over at the Chinese University of Hong Kong on Tuesday, people have good reason to fear that the Communist China-backed Hong Kong police may carry out their version of the Tiananmen Square massacre at Hong Kong Polytechnic University tonight. :(   

Mid-week musings on what has been a really bad week in Hong Kong

Lennon Wall at Quarry Bay's Via Fiori

 

Protest graffiti in Taikoo Shing

 

Not installation art but brick road blocks!

  

This week is far from over but already it's felt plenty long due to so much having already happened -- so much of it, sadly, so bad.  Monday saw a cop shooting three live rounds at protesters (but, apparently, only hitting one) and a man set ablaze.  Tuesday saw the police mount a major bid to enter the campus of the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) that involved their firing over 1,000 cannisters of tear gas in that area alone (and 1,567 in total that day along with 1,312 rubber bullets, 380 bean bag rounds and 126 sponge grenades) and turning it into a veritable war zone.  

 

While things could be said to be quieter on Wednesday than the two preceding days, we're still talking about a day with ample violent clashes around the territory and major traffic disruptions to prompt various universities to suspend classes, some for the remainder of the semester.  Also, there is a distinct sense of fear spreading -- at least among store owners as well as individuals -- with a number of shops, eateries and bank branches closing early for the day in my neighborhood despite it actually turning out to be one of the parts of Hong Kong that didn't see any violence yesterday.  In addition, last night was the second time this week that a Hong Kong Asian Film Festival screening I had a ticket for was cancelled, with the cinemas closing early: something they don't do even when Typhoon Signal No. 8 is hoisted! 

 

Soon after I woke up this morning, I got to realizing that today would be another bad day for Hong Kong.  Among the news that greeted me was of a young, black-clad man having died in a fall in Tsuen Wan and tear gas having been fired into the Hong Kong Polytechnic University campus.  And of the two people caught up in violent clashes who I read were in critical condition this morning, one (the 70-year-old cleaner who was hit in the head by a brick thrown during a clash between pro-democracy protesters and Beijing loyalists) has not managed to make it through the day.    

 

Amidst the death and destruction though, many Hong Kongers still are spiritedly resisting and showing support for one another as well as the anti-government protests that now have been going on for more than five months now (even if you "just" count from June 9th rather than the dates of the two earlier anti-extradition bill protests which took place in March and April).  You might say it's inevitable, given how the government has lost all credibility (not least because it's shown itself to be controlled by Beijing), but the fact of the matter is that protesters are taking risks and making sacrifices to exercise what rightfully should be their freedoms of speech, movement, assembly and such. 

 

Amidst the horrors of this week, I'm going to take heart from the fourth consecutive day of lunchtime protests in Central not having elicited tear gas being shot in that part of town today (unlike on Monday and Tuesday) -- and the lunchtime protests having spread to Quarry Bay and Taikoo Shing this afternoon.  So too that a rally to show support for firefighters and first aiders took place at Edinburgh Place this evening.  And that, despite there having been so many attempts to destroy them, Lennon Walls old and new are still blooming in various parts of the territory. 

Another terrible tear gas-filled weekday in Hong Kong

A quiet corner of the Chinese University of Hong Kong

on a day that feels like an eternity ago

A sight I loathe and never want to get used to seeing

A week or so ago, I was talking with a friend about the sad situation that Hong Kong currently is in. At one point, she said: "We must never get used to this."  These words resonated with me and I found myself quoting them to a couple visiting from England earlier today when discussing the turmoil and unrest that has beset this part of the world that I still very much love.

More than incidentally, on my way to meet that couple in Central this morning, I found myself in an MTR station crawling with riot police (the sight of whom I'm honestly getting pretty sick and tired of, and tends to fill me with foreboding -- I think with good reason).  And while I thankfully managed to escape inhaling more tear gas today, that by no means is because the local constabulary have reined in their use of it in recent days in Central and elsewhere.       

The main battleground today has been the campus of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, with the police having attempted to storm it since this afternoon and the battle still ongoing as I write this blog post.  After raining tear gas and rubber bullets on students for hours, the police have now also deployed one of their water cannons.  

I know of at least two friends have headed over to try to help the students there.  My unfamiliarity with the campus, among other things, have made me not join them.  Following what has been happening online, I feel so helpless as well as so very upset.  At one point this evening, I found myself shedding tears: probably the first time this has happened not as a result of tear gas since June 12th, the first time -- but sadly by no means the last time -- this year that the actions of the Hong Kong police got me shocked and filled with horror.    

When will it end?  How will it end?  This I know: the more the police fire tear gas at students, business executives and other office workers, area residents of various neighbourhoods, passersby (including children), etc., the more people they get angry at them.  And these include short term visitors to this fair city like the English couple I was with earlier today -- who arrived into town on Sunday, got tear gassed yesterday while strolling around near their hotel in Central but, hopefully, did not inhale more tear gas again today (what with the police having fired more of this chemical weapon in Central another two times over the past 12 hours)!