Hong Kong Occupy Central co-founder Benny Tai should come down from his ivory tower

Alice Wu says with his latest idea for yet another impractical voting strategy, the Occupy Central co-founder shows that he does not understand the complexities that come from working with people

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Occupy Central with Love and Peace, Benny Tai’s brainchild, quickly spiralled out of control after it was launched. Love and peace were lost in the process. Unfortunately, Tai seems to have learned little from that. When real people are involved, things get messy. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Published: 11:02am, 7 May 2017Updated: 8:22pm, 7 May 2017

Human progress owes a lot to the many who have taken on the rigorous exercise of repeating their experiments, toughing it out through the painful cycle of formulating, testing and modifying hypotheses without any promise of a favourable outcome. It’s not for the faint-hearted.

Benny Tai Yiu-ting cannot be accused of lacking conviction and boldness. The associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong who initiated the Occupy Central with Love and Peace movement has so much faith in his “path to democracy” that it’s almost of Biblical proportions. Following Occupy, he initiated “ThunderGo”, the strategic voting scheme for the Legislative Council election last year, led Citizens United in Action to launch a “civil referendum”, via an online app, ahead of the chief executive election in March, and most recently unveiled “Project Storm” for the 2019 district council elections.

The three founders of Occupy Central, (from left) Chan Kin-man, Benny Tai and Chu Yiu-ming, seen outside police headquarters in Wan Chai in January 2015. The three were arrested, then released, as the police continued their investigation into the civil movement. Photo: Sam Tsang

Occupy Central turned into something even Tai admitted was “beyond what [he] imagined”. Though somewhat dulled by time, the emotive reactions evoked by the mere mention of it remain strong today. It was his brainchild. But when it hit the ground in the autumn of 2014, it quickly spiralled out of control. Love and peace were lost in the process. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Occupy Central is on: Benny Tai rides wave of student protest to launch movement

Unfortunately, Tai seems to have learned little from that. When real people are involved, things get messy; that, in essence, is politics. Subsequently, his strategic voting weapon – ThunderGo – was blamed for contributing to the defeat of a few pan-democrats due to a lack of accurate information flows, which is a very practical problem that should have been foreseen. Similarly, his civic referendum for the chief executive election this year failed because it did not address the security risks involved when handling people’s personal information. So, in short, it was again inexecutable. One cannot simply ignore the human factor – people can get hurt, for real.

Tai saw Occupy Central as a political and social awakening. It’s time that he, too, was awakened to reality

Hong Kong Occupy Central co-founder Benny Tai should come down from his ivory tower

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Occupy Central is on: Benny Tai rides wave of student protest to launch movement

Occupy Central is on: Benny Tai rides wave of student protest to launch movement