The new Hong Kong legislature was sworn in yesterday in a ceremony disrupted by outbursts from a radical activist who won office and shouted slogans before and after taking his oath.
"Long live democracy! Long live the people!" Leung Kwok-hung (
Pro-democracy opposition figures claimed three new seats in the Legislative Council, raising their total to 25 out of 60, although pro-Beijing and big business figures remain in control.
Leung, who is Hong Kong's top activist and popularly known as "Longhair," scored a stunning victory with tens of thousands of anti-government protest votes in the Sept. 12 election.
Leung had sought to change his oath to include pledges to fight for democracy, freedom and human rights. He had been warned -- first by legislative officials and then by a judge -- that he could not legally alter the wording.
Legislative Secretariat officials had said he could lose his seat if he refused to take the oath.
Leung, a firebrand protester since British colonial days, may have found a compromise that let him keep protesting while also following the rules.
He shouted slogans before delivering the oath in full, then raised his arm defiantly and began shouting again.
Hong Kong's political situation has been tense for months, with ordinary citizens marching by the hundreds of thousands in July to demand full democracy even though Beijing ruled in April they can't have it for now.
Just half of the lawmakers were directly elected and the rest were chosen by special interest groups, while Tung was picked by a pro-Beijing committee.
The Hong Kong lawmakers signed their names to a list after swearing their oaths, but Leung did not do so.
A leading pro-Beijing politician, Jasper Tsang (
When Leung was called to be sworn, he stood and shouted, calling on China to atone for the killings in its crackdown on the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement in June 1989, to end its one-party rule and free political prisoners.
Leung said: "I declare here, loudly, I will be loyal to the Chinese people and Hong Kong citizens, oppose collusion between the government and the business sector, defend democracy and justice, fight for human rights and freedom."
Dressed in a black T-shirt emblazoned with more political statements, Leung's appearance stood in stark contrast to other legislators-elect who wore business suits and calmly uttered their oaths, some invoking the name of God as they promised to serve with integrity.
The T-shirt put Leung at odds with the legislature's dress code, but no objections were immediately raised.
Leung filed a lawsuit on Monday seeking to make up his own oath, but a judge threw it out just hours before the swearing-in ceremony.
"The oath he intends to take will be unlawful and have no effect," High Court Judge Michael Hartmann said.
As soon as the lawmakers were installed, they re-elected pro-Beijing colleague Rita Fan (
Fan easily survived a challenge from pro-democracy opposition figures who charged that she should have to give up her seat in China's parliament, the National People's Congress, because it gave her a conflict of interest.
It began as a satirical online project. Now millions of young people in India are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration. A parody political party called the Cockroach Janta Party, with the insect as its symbol, has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humor into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach — known for its ability to survive harsh conditions — as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance. The online movement’s rise has been unusually rapid. The Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)
SPEAKING OUT: After Siranudh Scott’s allegations surfaced, celebrities and public figures took to social media to share their own experiences of sexual misconduct and abuse A high-profile alleged sexual abuse case within a wealthy Thai beer brewing family has prompted a wave of painful accounts from survivors of unconnected abuse in the conservative nation. Siranudh Scott, a member of the billionaire Thai family that founded the ubiquitous Singha beer brand, posted an emotional video this month accusing his elder brother Sunit of repeatedly abusing him when he was a teenager. Sunit, who is in his 30s, later denied the allegations in a video posted online, but Singha parent Boonrawd dismissed him from his executive role with the company on Tuesday last week. “I felt I needed to speak
A Hong Kong astronaut is to join a Chinese space mission for the first time as part of a three-person crew launching today, as Beijing edges closer to its goal of landing people on the moon. The Tiangong space station — crewed by teams of three astronauts that are typically rotated every six months — is the crown jewel of China’s space program, boosted by billions in state investment in a bid to catch up with the US and Russia. The Shenzhou-23 mission is to blast off at 11:08pm from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China, carrying three astronauts to
UPGRADED ALERT: The risk inside DR Congo is now considered ‘very high,’ while neighboring countries face a ‘high’ threat as the outbreak continues, the WHO said Ebola is spreading faster than responders can track it in eastern Congo, where health workers managed to follow up with barely one in five identified contacts in a single day. Authorities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DR Congo) reported 83 confirmed infections, 746 suspected cases and 1,603 identified contacts as of Thursday, but health workers were able to follow up on only 342 contacts that day — about 21 percent of the total under monitoring — data released by the DR Congo Ministry of Public Health on Friday showed. The figures suggest the response is falling behind the outbreak itself,
RSS