P&O
A Fight for Democracy By nomi weinberger
A
s the fifth anniversary of The Umbrella Movement passes, it is important as young people to take note of both the significance of the movement and the key players involved. The Umbrella Movement was a series of protests in Hong Kong from September through December of 2014 in which people of Hong Kong took to the streets to fight for universal suffrage. The predominantly youthled movement was triggered by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress announcing the implementation of a pre-screening of candidates for the election of the Chief Executive of Hong Kong on August 31st, 2014. At the helm of said movement is Joshua Wong, who, at the beginning of the protests, was just 14 years old. For his work in promoting and spreading the resistance to anti-democratic policies enforced by the government of China in Hong Kong, Joshua has garnered both positive and negative attention: he suffered arrests but THE BULLETIN -
was also honored with global media attention including a Netflix Documentary, Teenager vs. Superpower. The aforementioned anti-democratic policies primarily revolve around the election process of the Cheif Executive: a nominating committee would elect a few candidates who would then be subject to popular election, but ultimately, the Cheif Executive could only be appointed by the Central People’s Government - the government of China. The current bout of protests was sparked by the controversial extradition bill which essentially would
34 - Dec. 2019/Jan. 2020
