A rally along Victoria Harbour is the latest display of discontent over the government's reclamation plans A blue ribbon more than 3,000 metres long was unfurled along the edge of Victoria Harbour yesterday by protesters angry at the government's insistence on reclaiming the harbour to build the Central-Wan Chai bypass road. About 12,000 people gathered in the latest show of public discontent about the issue. It followed a rally last month in which 20,000 people formed a human chain that stretched from Edinburgh Place in Central to Golden Bauhinia Square at the Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai. Following in their footsteps, protesters yesterday held up the blue ribbon - claimed to be the longest in the world - and chanted for an end to reclamation. Once the ribbon reached Golden Bauhinia Square, the rally rang out with the protesters' anthem - Our Blue Harbour. One chorus went: 'Those on the top, please stop the reclamation. Uphold your conscience, listen to the outcry.' Kwok Ka-ki, convenor of the Action Group on Protection of Victoria Harbour, which organised yesterday's rally, said the public was becoming increasingly frustrated over the issue. 'The government is not listening to us because there is no democracy, no responsible government,' he said. 'So support democracy, support the campaign.' Dr Kwok said the harbour belonged to Hongkongers. 'They own the harbour, they have the right to protect the harbour, so the government should respect our strong wish to protect the harbour,' he said. 'Today is the starting point.' A court ruling in March upheld the validity of the town planning process used to push ahead with the controversial Phase III of the Central reclamation project. The government says the project is needed to support the planned Central-Wan Chai bypass road and ease traffic congestion. But a long-time critic of the government's reclamation policies, Winston Chu Ka-sun - former chairman of the Society for the Protection of the Harbour - told the crowd: 'Hong Kong is our home, Victoria Harbour is part of our home. The government can't destroy it, the government cannot damage it, it belongs to us and they must ask us if they want us to destroy the harbour. The answer today is loud and clear so that the government can hear us.' Mr Chu said Hong Kong was the Pearl of the Orient. 'A pearl is from the sea, if there is no harbour then we are no longer the Pearl of the Orient. The government must recognise that the harbour is not only valued by Hong Kong people but by all Chinese people.' Last month, society chairwoman Christine Loh Kung-wai said it would not mount any further legal challenges to the project.
