Hong Kong government faces another challenge, as civil servants schedule rally to demand solutions for protest crisis

Hong Kong’s leader was on Sunday plunged deeper into political crisis after a group of civil servants announced a rally to demand answers from the government on how it is working to ease the city’s intensifying turmoil.

The rally – scheduled for Friday at Chater Garden in Central – was expected to draw 500 to 1,000 government workers. It was announced after a number of administrative officers, executive officers and government lawyers separately issued letters urging Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to order an independent inquiry into the fiasco.

“Many of our colleagues have expressed their concerns online over the situation and we think it is time to provide everyone a platform, and to unite our demands to the chief executive and her governing team,” said Michael Ngan Mo-chau, who works in the Labour Department and is one of the rally organisers.

“We would like to play our parts in help to mend the widening rift in society by channelling the citizens’ voices to the administration.”

Ngan said the group hoped Lam would address the five demands made by protesters, including to fully withdraw the now-suspended extradition bill and order an investigation into the police’s use of force in handling the anti-bill protests.

Cheung Ka-po, a rally organiser from the Transport Department, said a dozen civil servants had started a group on Telegram, an online platform, and decided to hold a rally after hundreds of their colleagues put forth anonymous petitions last week.