The victory by the "localists" was rather narrow.Having HKU students split from the Federation can also mean the pro-establishment forces having an easier time playing divide-and-rule to weaken and sow internal divisions among the student groups.
The victory by the "localists" was rather narrow.Having HKU students split from the Federation can also mean the pro-establishment forces having an easier time playing divide-and-rule to weaken and sow internal divisions among the student groups.
Curious as to how all this will hang together.
But please don't shoot yourselves in the foot.
Doesn't matter, they got what they wanted. Their own narrow vision have trumped the larger need to present a united pro-democracy front. It would be hard to imagine another OC occurring if there is not even a single student body representing the protesters.
It will be a lot harder to coordinate joint action and a lot more rivalries and squabbles for these student groups, all to the benefit of Hong Kong government and Beijing. These "localists" are naive. Do they really think Beijing's crackdown on dissent on the mainland have nothing to do with them? That lack of democracy in China is irrelevant to the situation in Hong Kong? Sorry to break it to these localists, but those issues cannot be separated from HK's uniqueness and autonomy which they claim to cherish and fight for.
They may have "won" a battle here, but they may well have lost the war for Hong Kong.
Last edited by Cho-man; 16-02-2015 at 06:34 PM.
It is very interesting. The group which organises the annual June 4 vigil (the Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China) is explicitly focused on achieving democracy for China as a whole, and so is the HKFS. The localists are clearly frustrated by the lack of progress on this, and feel that a locally focused approach may work better. It's yet another twist in the tale, and it may turn out to be an important one.
I'm skeptical a "local" approach will work any better. HK autonomy and fighting for democracy in China aren't mutually exclusive or issues isolated from one another.
One thing affects the other. Its all connected. Pure focus on localism and pretending the rest of China does not exist seems like a highly dubious approach to me.
Last edited by Cho-man; 16-02-2015 at 07:36 PM.