Democracy activists unite to support June 4 vigil
Ignoring rifts in pan-democrat camp, groups will attend event and hope Hongkongers will remember courage of 1989 pro-democracy movement as well as bloody crackdown
Democracy activists are not allowing the rift in the pan-democrat camp to fragment support for the annual Tiananmen Square memorial vigil in Victoria Park. And they hope that attendees at this year’s event will focus on the 1989 pro-democracy movement as well as the bloody June 4 crackdown that ended it.
Three groups – the Federation of Students, Scholarism and People Power – say they will continue to back the June 4 event despite their row with other democrats, in particular the Democratic Party, over political reform.
Their support is likely to be welcomed by vigil organiser the Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements in China, which faces challenges from both ends of the political spectrum this year.
People Power member Christopher Lau Gar-hung said his group believes the candlelight vigil at Victoria Park is “iconic and bigger than the alliance itself”.
Student federation secretary general Alex Chow Yong-kang, 23, encouraged Hongkongers to attend the event as a “warning” for Beijing.
“If [Beijing] continues to trample on human rights … we are still here monitoring,” Chow said.
Chow, a third-year student at the University of Hong Kong, said the commemoration should also focus on the pro-democracy movement that preceded the crackdown.
