Let's forget Occupy Central, mend fences - and move on
Terence Wu says Beijing has called the bluff of the movement's organisers
I was a registered voter, but subsequently lost my voting right after moving house as I did not bother to notify the authorities of my change of address. I guess I'm regarded as one of the "silent majority".
Hong Kong is my home and has been throughout my entire working life. I unashamedly take credit, albeit a small portion, for making Hong Kong what it is today. It saddens me that a minority is threatening to destroy what we have built with the Occupy Central campaign. To voice my opposition to this threat, my wife and I took part in the Anti-Occupy Central march last month - a first for both of us.
It was hot. The crowd was large. We waited for almost two hours before being allowed to set off, but the spirits of the participants remained high.
What I was not prepared for was the concerted effort, the following day, to tarnish and discredit this cause.
Reports included claims that mainlanders had been shipped in for the march; that people had been paid to participate; and that the protesters were unaware of why they were marching.
It all smacks of double standards. So, it was OK for the anti-Beijing forces to co-opt mainlanders into their activities; it was also OK for them to fly in Chinese dissidents and Taiwanese activists for their rallies; and it was OK for them to accept millions of dollars in donations, in blatant conflict with their roles?
My friend Eric Ng Ka-lim, a DJ for internet radio station D100, was "let go" after he acted as master of ceremonies for the Anti-Occupy Central march. Yet, compared with the outcry over the sacking by Commercial Radio of Li Wei-ling, the former current affairs programme host, the silence has been deafening. What happened to all the great champions of democracy? Where is our so-called "conscience of Hong Kong"?