Please Read: A letter to non-Hongkongers

Dear Readers,

Perhaps you don't know and don't care where (or what) Hong Kong is. Perhaps you think that Hong Kong is part of Japan, or Korea. Perhaps you think we don't speak English at all. Yes, perhaps this is not of your own business, but we need the world to know what is happening. 

We Hongkongers have been demanding for universal suffrage for 30 years. However, we never get to the point so close like now: we can elect our own Chief Executive in 2017, as promised by the National People's Congress Standing Committee (NPC), of China. We had our hopes high back in 2006; we thought we can have a democratic election.

Alas, as the time approaches 2012, we had the worst Chief Executive (CE) among all three CEs. Mr CY Leung has caused nothing but chaos, as people suspect him as a communist party member, only listening to the orders of the Central Government. It's crystal clear that he is just a puppet and there is a larger force behind it.

Later, we have discussions regarding the constitutional development in 2017. Previously, in Mr Donald Tsang's era, we nearly vetoed a constitutional reform blueprint which is quite similar to the then situation, but since the Democratic Party decided to support at the last minute, we had a Legislative Council (LegCo) with members from the District Council (DC) for this term. This caused the originally famous LegCo members run the election for DC instead. 

Well, that's not my focus. What I'm saying is we had a "failed" reform, and then later we had new ideas regarding the universal suffrage of the CE.

A lot of people believe that we have to have elements of civil nomination, or at least, the people who can be elected are not just handpicked by a nomination committee. Under the framework set by the Basic Law, we have thought of some "three-trail method", which comprises party, civil and committee nomination. We all have our own opinion, and during the consultation period, the government claims to have listened to all of our opinions and handed them in to the Central Government.

The angry civilians decide to occupy Central, the business centre of Hong Kong, once they found out that the government does not listen at all.

Last month, the NPC has given a framework to the Hong Kong government, stating that there must be and only be a nomination committee. Civil nomination, party nomination and such things are banned altogether. The candidates must be nominated by at least half (600 people) of the nomination committee. It is obvious that the government has not put the wish of the majority into account, while only putting their focus on so-called organisations like "silent majority".

We all want universal suffrage. Some people want it more, and some people can accept "pocketing it first" and change the details in the future. The outraged Scholarism, a political organisation, led by Mr Joshua Wong, however, invited the university students to have a one-week student strike. Secondary school students joined in on last Friday, 26 Sept. They sat in front of the government headquarters for the whole day until midnight, where some people went into the Civil Square, a public property only to be shut down by the Hong Kong government after some previous demonstrations.

The police then cleared the place and arrested all the people in the Civil Square.

More and more people joined in to support the students.

And, at midnight of 28 Sept, Occupy Central Movement started.

There were hundreds of thousands of people joining in, and the number grew exponentially. The police decided to clear the roads to facilitate normal running of the city. They have used, nevertheless, excessive weapons, such as pepper spray, tear gas, and some people even claimed that the police had used rubber bullets.

Now more and more people are joining in, in different parts of Hong Kong. Some went to Causeway Bay and some went to Mong Kok, both shopping areas. The government has terminated some parts of the MTR service, and the police rode the MTR from different places to Central.

Since the situation is dangerous, the Education Bureau has called off school in Central and Western District and Wan Chai. Unfortunately, SPCC is located on the hills in Central and Western District, and there is no way that we can get to school even if the school is not closed. That's why I can be typing this here in school hours.

I am personally devastated. The police, using excessive power, has harmed people with just an umbrella. Yes! They don't have any weapons except umbrellas! They asked the protestors to look at them just to spray pepper spray on them. They even used sticks (I forgot its name, but you get what I mean) to hit the innocent people!

We have to fight for democracy. And for this, we have to pay a price. Is this the price we want to pay? Is that what the police has pledged to do so? After all, they should be serving justice, not the boss. They have already trespassed international laws, and obeying the superiors is not a reason to act so.

Please, spread the word about Hong Kong and the Yellow Ribbon. We really need the attention of the world to change the government's mind.