Fewer participants attend June 4 candlelight vigil

The annual candlelight vigil in memory of the events that occurred on June 4, 1989 in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square was held once again at Senado Square, but gathered fewer attendees than in previous years.

Last year’s vigil had also seen a decrease in attendees.

Organized by the Macau Democratic Development Association, the vigil was attended as per usual by lawmakers Ng Kuok Cheong and Au Kam San. However, the younger wing of the New Macau Association pan-democrats was unusually absent.

When questioned on the conspicuously fewer participants and the lack of youth attendees, Ng simply responded that, “No matter how many people will attend, we must have this gathering.”

The pro-democrat lawmaker remarked that the reduced attendance might be due several factors, suggesting, “Maybe the youngsters already given up due to the wealth of the political leaders [in China], which shows them that although [the youth] dislike them, they cannot do much about it,” adding that “young people feel that there is no hope in China and they might or might not join the event according to their [mood].”

“We need to remind them about this, we must discuss what happened in China, that is our hope for the future,” Ng said, adding, “[My] generation has the [duty] to tell the new generation what happened.”

According to Ng, China should adopt the democratic system since its communist ideology no longer exists and has become a capitalist system. “The Chinese Communist Party has already given up communism, they have become a capitalist state and they use the resources and their accumulated wealth [to lure the people],” he said.

He added that people in mainland China know that it is unsafe to live in and accumulate wealth in China, and so “they accumulate wealth and they leave the country.”

He expects that a revolution might occur in the near future, spurred by these funds that have been brought out over the last 20 years – which
are similar circumstances to those that led to revolution during the Qing Dynasty.

During this year and the previous year’s event, a group of 50 to 60 people were led by Ng and Au in the vigil, commemorating the events of 1989 with images, videos and leaflets.

Tourists from the mainland were also present in the audience, and were reportedly surprised by the event – with several admitting that this was the first time they had seen information relating  to the 1989 events in Beijing.