Opinion | End occupation of Hong Kong and focus on mass electoral campaign for democracy

I am an old-timer. The umbrella movement is billed as an intergenerational conflict. What I have to say may not be music to young ears. Yet, like most grandparents, I will keep mumbling, screaming and doing whatever it takes to talk some sense into the heads of the student activists.

Those who are supposed to be leading the movement have formed a five-party platform to discuss their next moves. They include the pan-democrats, Occupy Central with Love and Peace, the Federation of Students, Scholarism and other civic bodies. My hopes are pinned on the student bodies.

The organisers have so far failed to come up with a clear strategy, let alone an action plan. The longer this goes on, the less popular the movement will become. The government will emerge as the winner from this gradual change in public sentiment. The campaign is in danger of dissipating into a public nuisance.

This trend has been confirmed independently by various surveys. An overwhelming 83 per cent in one poll said they wanted Occupy to end immediately. The under 30s are the only sector who tend to think otherwise. Slightly over half this age bracket want the sites in Admiralty, Causeway Bay and Mong Kok to remain occupied. For them, the movement will be a failure, until and unless the government makes substantial concessions over electoral reform. They prefer a forced eviction to a voluntary withdrawal.

The five-party platform has been toying with the idea of asking some directly elected legislators to resign so they can promote their ideas in all 18 districts during by-elections that would be called within six months. Such a pseudo-referendum could provide a turning point for the campaign. The pan-democratic camp could then use the electoral campaign to regain the momentum and refocus on the major stumbling block for true democracy in Hong Kong - Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying.

The student groups should call a mass assembly and announce a tactical withdrawal from the occupied sites so the protests can transform into a mass campaign across the districts. The window of opportunity is narrow, with major occupied areas due to be cleared within days.

Professor Chan Kin-man, one of the trio behind the original concept of Occupy, is apparently sensitive to the turning tide. He has in effect withdrawn from Admiralty and resumed his teaching duties on campus. He has written in support of the pseudo-referendum. He said the least the protesters should do is make the occupied sites smaller in return for greater support from the wider public.