政治冷感褪流行 港人上街頭
摘錄自：天下雜誌 經濟學人電子報 2013/1/17
2014-01-03 Web only 作者：經濟學人
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| 圖片來源：flickr.com/photos/forecastle/ |
過去，香港人大多對政治十分冷淡，但從1980年代末期開始，香港人便培養出在周年走上街道的傳統。其中之一就是6月4日；1989年6月4日，中國政府於天安門鎮壓示威者。另一個則是7月1日；1997年的那一天，中國取回了香港的主權。
最近，元旦也加入了香港運動人士的示威行事曆；而在今年1月1日，數千人亦嚮應了號召。示威組織者民間人權陣線表示，參與者達3萬人；香港警方的估計則是1.11萬人。
1年前，數萬人走上街頭要求特首梁振英下台。但此事不可能成真；縱使香港有720萬居民，梁振英最終只需對1,200人組成的選舉委員會負責，其中還有許多北京指派的人選。今年元旦遊行的目標，就是改變這個政治現況。
今年的活動還包括一場由香港大學民調專家鍾庭耀設計的非官方公投；約9成的投票者支持，在2017年的特首選舉中擴增選舉委員會，並允許民眾提民人選。根據中國在《基本法》中的承諾，屆時香港特首將以普選產生。但中國近期的恫嚇，例如建議唯有「愛國者」可以成為候選人、所有候選人都必須接受篩選等，讓香港人十分不滿；示威者堅持，要有真正的選擇，普選才有意義。
示威中的政治訴求十分多樣，從激進（停止《基本法》並廢止選舉委員會）到務實（推動公民提名元素）皆有。向中國官方施壓的各項公民抗命計畫中，還包括打亂香港金融心臟地帶的中環「佔領」運動。
1月1日夜晚，中環聚集了約2,000名比較喜歡於拍手而非大呼口號的群眾，在那裡進行公民抗命的基本演練；他們練習如何在遭毆時保護頭部、如何組成人鏈以對抗逮捕。群眾組成十分多樣，有大學生、退休者、銀行人員和低收入團體；他們會結合在一起，主要是因為他們相信，公開選舉才是許多香港社會問題的解藥。看來，政治冷感已經退流行了。（黃維德譯）
©The Economist Newspaper Limited 2014
The Economist
Hong Kong politics
Taking it to the streets
By The Economist
From The Economist
Published: January 03, 2014
Jan 2nd 2014, 8:49 by V.L. | HONG KONG
TENDING towards political apathy until the late 1980s, Hong Kong people
have since fostered a fiesty tradition of taking to the streets to mark certain
anniversaries. One of these is June 4th, the date of the 1989 crackdown against
demonstrators in and around Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Another is July 1st,
the date in 1997 when China regained sovereignty over the former British
colony.
New Year's Day has recently been added to the roster of protest dates
on the Hong Kong activism calendar, and on January 1st thousands heeded the
call. The Civil Human Rights Front, organisers of the march, said there were
30,000 participants; Hong Kong police gave a count of 11,100 demonstrators.
A year ago, tens of thousands people marched to demandthat the city's
chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, step down. That was not to be, however,
because in this city of 7.2 million, Mr Leung ultimately answers to a committee
of 1,200 electors, including many Beijing appointees. This week's New Year's
Day march was aimed at changing that political reality.
This year's event also included an unofficial referendum, designed by
one of the city's leading pollsters, Robert Chung Ting-Yiu, of the University
of Hong Kong. Majorities of more than 90% supported appealsto expand the
election committee and to allow the public to nominate candidates in the next
chief-executive election, scheduled for 2017. By then Hong Kong's voters are
due to be granted universal suffrage, according to a promise made by China in
the Basic Law, Hong Kong's mini-constitution.
Yet, China's recent browbeating—in the form of suggestions that only
"patriots" are fit to be candidates, and that all nominees must be
screened— has rattled Hong Kong's body politic. Demonstrators insisted that for
universal suffrage to be meaningfully exercised, there must be more than a
Hobson's choice.
"We need to equip ourselves for mass action," said Johnson
Yeung, of Scholarism, an activist students' group. Another participant, Audrey
Eu, of the Civic Party, said, "We're foolish for being too obedient."
Political demandsranged from the radical (snubbing the Basic Law and
scrapping the election committee) to the more pragmatic (pushing for an element
of civil nomination). Plans for bringing more pressure to bear on authorities
in China call for more civil disobedience events including an "Occupy"
movement (its Chinese-language website is here) to disrupt the city's financial
heart, called Central.
On the night of January 1st in Central a subdued crowd of about 2,000,
more inclined to clapping than to screaming slogans, worked on basic civil
disobedience tradecraft. They practiced how to cushion their heads against
blows and how to form a human chain in order to resist arrest. The crowd was
diverse, made up of university students, retirees, bankers and low-income
groups. But they were mainly united in the belief that an open popular election
is the cure for many of the city's social ills. Apathy, it seems, has gone out
of style.
©The Economist Newspaper Limited 2014
