Hong Kong pro-democracy legislators and a few hundred other citizens took to the streets yesterday to demand the right to full democracy in the southern Chinese territory.
The protest, organized by the entire 25 pro-democracy legislators, came a week after tens of thousands of people marched to denounce a package of limited political reforms proposed by the territory's Chief Executive Donald Tsang (曾蔭權).
Lawmaker Margaret Ng (吳靄儀) told the rally, also organized to mark International Human Rights Day today, that the time is ripe for Hong Kong people to elect their own leader.
"Democracy and universal suffrage is everyone's basic human right. We want to remind the Hong Kong government that universal suffrage, one-man-one-vote is our basic right," she told a crowd of about 300.
Chanting slogans and waving banners, the protesters in the former British colony marched to the government headquarters and tied yellow ribbons on its gates.
Waving a banner that read "I want universal suffrage," a 75-year-old man surnamed Tang demanded direct elections.
"I am old and I'm afraid I won't be able to see full democracy. We will only have real freedom if we are allowed to elect our leader," he said.
Tsang's proposals include expanding a committee of Beijing-backed elites that chooses the chief executive and enlarging the total number of seats in the legislature. Critics say the plan does not go far enough and fails to provide a timetable for full democracy, which is authorized under the territory's post-colonial constitution.
Democrats have threatened to veto the proposed bill in the legislature on Dec. 21 unless Tsang offers a concrete timetable for democratic reform. He has said his hands are tied by Beijing and he can only make small changes to the draft law, which he is scheduled to announce this week.
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