American funded Design Democracy project Law Professor giving a political talk to school children on 22 April 2014 in the run-up to Occupy Central

In 2012 and 2014, The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) allocated US Government to the National Democratic Institute (NDI) for the development of an Internet portal and online platforms which were used by their recipients to arrange, coordinate and support the Occupy Central protests.

The funds were allocated for use in the Design Democracy Hong Kong Project and one of the platforms which was used to coordinate and support the Occupy Central protests was the Design Democracy Hong Kong Facebook page.

One of the enduring images of the Occupy Central protests was the ‘spontaneous’ appearance of dozens of school children coming out in support of the protests, but as with many things about Occupy Central, not everything was what it seemed.

Design Democracy School Talk

The following is a Design Democracy Hong Kong 港人講普選 Facebook post about a school talk given in the run-up to Occupy Central by Professor Simon YOUNG of the HKU Faculty of Law to school children on universal suffrage and constitutional development on 22 April 2014¹:

On 22 April 2014, Professor YOUNG a school talk given to students at the Christian Alliance P.C. Lau Memorial School.  The following text and photographs were posted by the Design Democracy Hong Kong Facebook page:

-          今日同prof young 去左學校講talk吖，介紹香港政制發展，普選問題等。
如果大家知道有咩學校會有興趣叫我地去，記得通知我地吖

-          Today went to give a talk about universal suffrage and constitutional development with prof Young. If you are a teacher or u know any schools that would be interested to have us, please contact us! designdemocracyhk@gmail.com

Design Democracy Hong Kong Facebook Page
opened at the School Talk on 22 April 2014

Christian Alliance PC Law Memorial International School

Professor Simon YOUNG giving a talk 
on universal suffrage and constitutional development

Professor Simon YOUNG giving a talk 
on universal suffrage and constitutional development

Professor Simon YOUNG giving a talk
on universal suffrage and constitutional development

Comment

Under Section 84 (1) (m), Regulations of the Education Ordinance, Cap 279, the Chief Executive in Council may make regulations providing for the control of the dissemination of information, or expression of opinion, of a clearly biased political nature in schools. Link to Education Ordinance.

Reference

¹Facebook. Design Democracy Hong Kong Facebook post. School talk given by Professor YOUNG on 22 April 2014 on universal suffrage and constitutional development. See link: https://www.facebook.com/designdemocracyhk/posts/699246246783792