Opinion | Pan-democratic legislators must stop hiding behind the students
Albert Cheng says lawmakers should do their duty as the elected voices of the people and resign en mass - to take the fight to the government
The student leaders are mindful of their moral obligation to those who have followed their appeal to occupy the streets. They consider it irresponsible to ask their supporters to quit the sites, despite the prolonged stalemate. As a result, no one has taken charge to make a decision to withdraw.
The students have completed their historic mission. They have awakened the majority of the silent majority, especially those who were born in or after 1980. Some critics say the community has been polarised and torn apart.
The fact is nobody can call Hongkongers politically apathetic any more. The umbrella movement has achieved what the democratic camp has failed to do over the past three decades in articulating the people's aspirations for true democracy.
The students can make an honourable retreat from the streets at any time, with or without a consensus of the occupiers. No one is in a position to challenge their integrity. I, for one, am impressed by their courage, persistence and sense of justice.
Beijing has blacklisted even students on the fringes of the campaign and barred them from entering the mainland. Lester Shum of the Hong Kong Federation of Students and Joshua Wong Chi-fung of Scholarism, among others, were arrested during the violent police clearance of the occupied site in Mong Kok this week.
The actions of the police in the Mong Kok clearance were dubious. They were supposed to assist bailiffs, on request, to remove obstacles in the areas specified in the injunction order. Instead, they used the civil injunction as a pretext to clear the entire site. This is in sharp contrast with what took place when a similar court order was executed near Citic Tower, opposite the Legislative Council building at Tamar.