WITH THE INTERNATIONAL community's attention turned to Hong Kong, local protesters were afforded the chance to bring to light grave injustices. On Tuesday, activists took their turn in the fray by entering one of three small protest enclosures, or 'designated public activity areas' along Harbour Road, the site closest to where the delegates would enter the Convention and Exhibition Centre.
The majority possessed neither the media-grabbing aggression of 'Long Hair' Leung Kwok-hung and the April 5th Action Group activists, nor the sexy catch-cries of anti-globalisation protesters - 'Down with Capitalist Cronyism' - but nonetheless they carried conviction . . . and a letter.
In a discourse free of burning tyres, rock slings and Molotov cocktails, upon entering a barricade-enclosed pen, each protester or group handed a letter of grievance to Wan Chai station sergeant Man Kwai-tong. 'I take the letters to the command station and send it to the particular addressee,' he said. All protesters' letters were for President Jiang Zemin.
Man duly recorded the particulars of the protesters' Hong Kong identity card and mailing address, not to track them down should they incite violence, but 'so we know how to get in touch with them should we get a response from their letters', he said.
'I'm not worried about anyone causing trouble,' said Man. 'They're just attention-seekers and they know our bottom line: express themselves non-violently.'
On the first day of the Fortune Global Forum, out of 1,000 expected protesters, there were only 300. 'People here are concerned with earning a living,' said Man.
