‘X’ marks the spot: Illiterate villagers boost Anti-Occupy Central signature campaign
Alliance for Peace and Democracy collects more signatures in Tai Po as those unable to write sign with an 'X'
PUBLISHED : Sunday, 27 July, 2014, 4:07pm
UPDATED : Sunday, 27 July, 2014, 5:33pm
Members of the Alliance for Peace and Democracy collect signatures for their anti-Occupy Central signature campaign in Tai Po. Photo: David Wong
Elderly indigenous villagers, some illiterate and with little knowledge of politics, added their backing to an anti-Occupy Central signature campaign on Sunday as organisers ventured deep into rural Tai Po to rally support.
Former RTHK host turned Alliance for Peace and Democracy spokesman Robert Chow Yung led an entourage to Sam Mun Tsai, Tai Mei Tuk and Lung Mei to collect signatures.
Those did not know how to write were asked to place an “X” in the signature box.
“I actually don’t know what the Occupy Central movement is about,” Sam Mun Tsai shopkeeper Cheung Wing-wah admitted after signing the petition.
Robert Chow Yung said the 810,000 signatures collected in opposition to the civil obedience movement so far represented a “world record” and “the trend of public opinion”. Photo: David Wong
Another villager, 80, was asked to sign but said that she did not know what the term “universal suffrage” meant.
Chow, who was joined by Tai Po district councillors and members of the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong, spoke of indigenous Hakka villages – traditionally a bastion of pro-government support – as a “powerful” and “important” force in the city.
Some villagers said they were participating out of blind patriotism.
“We Hakka people want to oppose Occupy Central because we love our country and our home. We stand united,” said Wong Bak-sing, 76, former village chief of Tai Mei Tuk.
“We do not want riots!”
Chow said the 810,000 signatures collected in opposition to the civil disobedience movement so far represented a “world record” and “the trend of public opinion”.
He added that a major increase in signatures since the campaign began last week was largely due to revelations of donations made to pan-democrat lawmakers by Apple Daily owner Jimmy Lai Chee-ying.
Robert Chow Yung led an entourage to Sam Mun Tsai, Tai Mei Tuk and Lung Mei to collect signatures. Photo: David Wong
“Whether this was illegal or not, many people were left disappointed and angry ... this has indirectly helped our campaign,” he said.
The pro-Beijing alliance is midway through a one-month campaign to denounce Occupy Central, which plans to rally protesters to blockade Central district if the government does not come up with a satisfactory plan to implement universal suffrage for the election of the chief executive in 2017.
Chow said there was no problem in Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying adding his signature to the campaign, as he was doing it in his own “personal capacity”.
“Everyone’s objective, including the government and the pan-democrats, is the same and that is for universal suffrage,” he said. “The only difference is in method.
“We can talk it out. There is no need for Occupy Central and causing destruction to Hong Kong.”
The alliance said it will present the signatures collected so far on Monday to Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor.
