Hong Kong civil servants have taken to anonymously posting support for ongoing democracy protests on a public Facebook page, highlighting the unease among some of those working at the heart of the territory’s government.
Bureaucrats from a variety of departments — including the government’s own information service, the police and the judiciary — have been posting pictures of their official identity cards with their names redacted alongside slogans critical of Beijing.
The postings comes as a group of 1,300 civil servants hit back yesterday at their union bosses, who had criticized the protest movement earlier this week.
Photo: AFP
Publishing a statement in the Ming Pao daily, the group said they believed the “peaceful and non-violent principle” of the movement was being upheld by protesters.
Parts of the city have been paralyzed for nearly a month by mass rallies and road blocks calling on Beijing to rescind its insistence that Hong Kong’s next chief executive be vetted by a loyalist committee ahead of the 2017 elections.
The largest protest camp is situated outside government headquarters, where many of the territory’s bureaucrats work.
One message posted on Facebook next to an identity card belonging to a member of the city’s police force used a traditional Chinese idiom that roughly translates as: “My body is in the belly of the beast but my heart is with the people.”
The post is by far the most popular on the page and by yesterday morning it had gathered nearly 6,000 “likes” and 600 shares since it was posted on Wednesday afternoon.
Another photo showed a handwritten message next to a press officer identity card.
“I want universal suffrage, thank you to those who fight for Hong Kong [democracy] for more than 20 days,” read the note.
“Civil servants are also normal citizens after they get off work, we also want universal suffrage,” added another with an identity card from the Hong Kong housing authority.
The page has had 13,000 “likes” with many commentators thanking the bureaucrats for their support.
“I am extremely moved,” Hong Kong Facebook user Koey Sit commented on the entry by the police officer, while others called the person an “officer with a conscience.”
Hong Kong student leaders said on Wednesday they were undecided over further negotiations with the government following face-to-face talks on Tuesday that made little headway.
Angry confrontations between protesters and local residents fed up with the disruption caused by roadblocks have been a common sight in three of the protest zones where several main roads are blockaded.
However, a poll published on Wednesday by the Chinese University of Hong Kong showed that support for the pro-democracy movement has in fact risen since the protests began with nearly 38 percent saying they now approved of the movement compared with 31 percent last month.
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