Students at the City University of Hong Kong voted yesterday (6 May) to leave the Hong Kong Federation of Students, an umbrella organisation purporting to represent all college students but is believed to be dominated by "dinosaurs" who oppose more pro-active forms of protest. It was a surprise landslide victory (2469 v. 527) for the "separatists" who had had to fight against the formidable publicity machine of the Federation. Following HKU, Polytechnic and Baptist, CityU is the fourth university choosing to leave to the Federation. The remaining four universities may well follow suit and vote to leave.
Yesterday's vote can be seen as a watershed moment in Hong Kong's struggle for democracy and self-rule, for this was no ordinary student election. As one of the main organisers of last year's Umbrella Revolution, the Federation has been widely held responsible for the failure of the protest movement. It has shown itself to be lacking in leadership and foresight, leaving many students disillusioned and looking for new ways to voice their dissent against Beijing and its puppet government in Hong Kong. Celebrating their election victory, the "separatist" camp at CityU urge their fellow students to seize the moment and forge a new way to take the protest movement further.
Whether by coincidence or not, the April issue of CityU's student magazine focuses on the question of revolution and independence. It argues for Hong Kong's right to seek self-rule under UN and international laws and ponders the possibility of staging a revolution and whether violence and bloodshed could be avoided. Equally, it takes pain to explain why the Democrats and other mainstream old-timers and leftards in the pro-democracy camp must be defeated before Hong Kong stands any chance of freeing itself from the tightening grip of Beijing. Finally, it calls on Hongkongers to brace themselves for a revolution that could be just round the corner. Needless to say, the student publication has been strongly condemned by the pro-China press as subversive and dangerous.