2 The Most Lethal Weapon of Civil Disobedience

It is very likely that C.Y. Leung will not make any concrete promise in his Policy Address concerning the implementation of genuine universal suffrage in 2017 and 2020. To strive for the implementation of genuine universal suffrage has been the hope of many Hong Kong people for many years. This matter should not be dragged on in the next round of debate of the constitutional reform. However, judging from the present situation, the chance that Beijing will allow Hong Kong to have genuine universal suffrage is not high. For the Hong Kong people who support the implementation of genuine universal suffrage, the political parties of the pan-democratic camp and the civil society, what can be done?

The effectiveness of past strategies including organizing large scale procession (like the July 1st Rally in 2003), de facto referendum (like the REFERENDUM CAMPAIGN IN FIVE GEOGRAPHICAL CONSTITUENCIES in the last round of constitutional reform), and occupation of the Government Headquarter with hunger strike (like what happened at the Civic Square during the Anti-National Curriculum Movement) is questionable. Beijing’s intention of not allowing Hong Kong to have genuine universal suffrage may be too strong and the pressure generated from these strategies may still be not enough. Therefore, in order to strive for the implementation of genuine universal suffrage in Hong Kong, we might have to prepare a weapon that is more “lethal”: Occupy Central.

The action is a form of non-violent civil disobedience with protesters occupying main streets in Central illegally for a prolong period. Its objective is to paralyze the political and economic centre of Hong Kong to force Beijing to change its stance. In other to generate sufficient “lethality,” the action has to comply with the following principles:

1. Number

The number of people participating must be beyond a critical figure. If the number is too small, the Police can remove the protesters easily. Once the number reaches beyond a critical figure, the Police will not be able to disperse the protesters unless they use tear gas and send in the Anti-riot Squad. In Hong Kong, more than 10,000 people should be able to generate the effect. Making the Police to use a higher degree of force will raise the political cost of the Government in handling this action. The more the people, the bigger will be the effect.

2. Opinion Leaders

People participating in this action must include opinion leaders in the society, especially political leaders, ex-government officials, religious leaders and scholars who have never breached the law and are not radical. Their participation will indicate that the controversy has arrived at a critical moment and even opinion leaders like them are forced to use civil disobedience to express their stance. This will generate a strong appeal to the whole society. The best examples are the civil disobedience movements led by Gandhi in India and Martin Luther King in the United States.

3. Non-violence

The power of civil disobedience is generated from the illegal but non-violent method appealing to the sense of justice of the general public. If there is any violence, the appeal will be very much weakened. To generate the best effect, the organizers have to make a public announcement in advance that they will go ahead to occupy on a particular day at a particular moment. Those who participate have to sign an oath declaring clearly that they will not use violence and will only occupy the main streets in Central peacefully. Before the action is taken, the organizers may put up clears signs at junctures leading to Central to warn the drivers that the action is going to start so that they can avoid driving their cars into the affected areas. The protesters should wait until the traffic lights have turned red and all cars have stopped before they walked into the median section of the road from the junctures. Personal safety of the protesters and other people will then not be threatened.

4. Continuity

To generate and accumulate sufficient political energy, the action to occupy has to be continuous. In another words, the Civic Square will be moved to Central. Once the occupation starts, supporters will bring in all kinds of reinforcement to the main streets in Central. A broadcast centre will be established for the demands and messages of the action to be broadcasted to all people in Hong Kong through the Internet and other media. The action may add in elements of happy protest and there can be carnival-style meetings in the street. The whole action should be able to attract international attention and more political pressure upon the opponent can then be generated.

5. Bearing legal responsibility

Action of civil disobedience is illegal. All participants need to declare clearly in the oath that they are going to bear the legal responsibility. After the action, participants will turn themselves in to the enforcement agency for the prosecution department to decide whether they should be prosecuted. This is an important part of the action to maintain its political appeal.

6. Timing

As Occupy Central is a “lethal” weapon, it should never be used lightly. It should only be taken as the last resort when Hong Kong people’s dream for genuine universal suffrage is totally dashed. If the timing is not right, not only that it will fail to gather sufficient number of people to participate, the political impact generated may not be big enough to shock anyone.

7. Announcement in advance

If the opponent knows the existence of this “lethal" weapon, it may not need to be actually used. Therefore, a “lethal" weapon does not need to be a secret weapon. On the contrary, it has to be announced in advance. This is also the reason why participants need to sign the oath in advance. If we can collect the oaths of ten thousand people including the oaths by opinion leaders, the organizers would have already started the actual action of deployment. Immense political pressure may have been generated upon the opponent.

8. Goal

We need to understand that the ultimate goal of the action is the implementation of genuine universal suffrage in Hong Kong. Therefore, no matter the action is actually taken or not, it should come to an end once the opponent expresses his intention to come back to the negotiation table to discuss the concrete measures in implementing genuine universal suffrage. If the opponent fails to honour his promise, the action can then be resumed.