The Occupy Central campaign has not backfired despite recent polls showing support for Beijing's reform framework, the movement's co-founder says.
In an interview with the South China Morning Post reviewing the impact of the 79 days of protest, Benny Tai Yiu-ting said that the campaign had, in fact, widened the support base of the pro-democracy camp.
"Occupy has achieved the goal of social awakening far more than was intended," Tai said.
"Occupy did not end with a loss - we have expanded the pro-democracy camp."
He said that the tough stance taken by Beijing towards Hong Kong could be "a strategic consideration" and he has not lost hope for genuine reform in the next few years.
Speaking a week after police cleared the Occupy base camp in Admiralty, Tai said he was aware that some polls had shown that public sentiment against Beijing's stringent reform framework handed down in August for the 2017 chief executive election - the decision that triggered the protests - had waned slightly.
"It is true that towards the end, more people became anti-Occupy because they found it went on too long. But they did not object to civil disobedience or universal suffrage," said Tai, who co-founded the movement which eventually deviated from his script as the leadership shifted to students and the protest was prolonged.
On the contrary, he said that a recent Chinese University poll showed that supporters of Occupy accounted for more than 30 per cent of respondents, which he said was "solid growth" from the lack of positive response to the article last year in which he floated the idea of Occupy.
"Those in power will have to face these new sentiments and the reality that governance is difficult. Either you give Hongkongers some sweeteners for the economy, or you keep on the suppression, but both have failed to pacify people. There's got to be a compromise."
He said he had "no choice" in starting the mass sit-in, which seems to have toughened Beijing's stance towards Hong Kong. "The aim of Occupy was twofold: to put pressure on Beijing through threatening to occupy the roads, and to do social awakening. The first one proved to fail after Beijing handed down the August decision. So we continued social awakening through the act of occupation."
He said politicians were now aware of the need to connect with young people if they are to survive. "Hong Kong's future democratic movement will no longer be a vertical structure - there are no top-down relations and parties can no longer be the leader."
He sees a horizontal network, developed during Occupy, where different groups - parties, civil groups, students, internet users and even artists - share a common set of objectives and work in their own spheres of influence.
"Occupy has made me release that I am not good at fighting in the streets. There were many times I felt I did not fit in," he said.
The law academic did not enjoy addressing the crowd in Admiralty, on nights when protesters were longing for emotional speeches from leaders.
"But I will not leave the democratic movement. I will focus on contributing ideas rather than occupying the streets," Tai said.
Nor will he run for election. He said he has been invited by pro-democracy parties to run in past elections. "If I was interested, I would have done it a long time ago," Tai said.
Structure of The Lead:
who: the movement's co-founder
what: The Occupy Central campaign has not backfired
when: not given
why: The Occupy Central campaign
where: not given
how: recent polls showing support for Beijing's reform framework
Keywords:
1.Occupy Central campaign - 佔領中環活動
2.backfired - 事與願違
3.South China Morning Post- 中國南方早報
4.pro-democracy camp - 親民主派
5.tough stance - 強硬立場
6.waned - 減弱
7.disobedience - 抗命
8.suffrage - 選舉權9.deviated - 偏離10.suppression - 抑制11.pacify - 安撫12.sit-in - 靜坐
http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1667605/hong-kongs-occupy-protests-did-not-end-loss-says-co-founder-benny-tai
