 Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters have an almost zero chance of changing Beijing's stance and securing free elections, the city's embattled Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said in a TV interview today.He has insisted China will not change its mind on the format for elections in 2017, despite weeks of protests. He said, the protests had spun out of control and did not rule out the use of force to end them. The pro-democracy protests have brought thousands on to the streets paralysing parts of Hong Kong. China has agreed to direct elections in 2017, but wants control over which candidates can stand. The protesters remained today with hundreds camping in lines of tents set up in the street overnight. |
Save Dissent to Save Democracy THE rising instances of physical violence and threats against political opponents and the inability to accept dissent must raise huge concerns amongst all of us who see democracy as perhaps the really stellar achievement since Independence. AAP’s attack on BJP headquarters and acts of arson committed under the very noses of their elite leadership; the attacks on Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia in Gujarat in the last two days; the recent manhandling of the caretaker of journalist Siddharth Varadarajan’s house by some garden variety thugs; and the violence and threats meted out regularly to their political opponents by political parties is surely deplorable and condemnable. This is a fatally flawed trend which will destroy the very foundations of our democratic institutions if not pushed back with all the strength and condemnation that the civil society can mobilise. Replaying the past To begin with, it must be clarified that we should ...
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