Fears blockade plan may end in bloodshed
Ex-policy adviser sees no room for compromise in increasingly tense debate on electoral reform
An academic's plan to block the roads in Central demanding genuine universal suffrage may end in bloodshed, a former government adviser warned yesterday.
Professor Lau Siu-kai, who used to head the Central Policy Unit, told RTHK that he feared the movement will "start peacefully but end in bloodshed".
And he wasn't optimistic about the passage of the electoral reform in the Legislative Council, given recent tension around the debate over achieving genuine universal suffrage in the 2017 chief executive poll.
He added that the pan-democrats and Beijing were "on different planes". "I cannot see any room for compromise," he said. "The pan-democrats set the criteria at the Western [standard] of universal suffrage but the central government and the pro-establishment camp are looking to fit the electoral system into the goal of one country, two systems."
Separately, at a media lunch yesterday, Tourism Board chairman Peter Lam Kin-ngok, who is also president of property developer Lai Sun, questioned whether taking "aggressive" action such as the planned blockade in the heart of the city was justified in the fight for democracy.
"We have to think about this carefully. What if these young people run onto the road and are hit by cars?" Lam asked. He also worried that the plan could deter tourists from coming to the city.