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Note: This article represents the view of the author and not the University of Hong Kong.

A march, postponed due to the Southern Asia tsunami, has eventually ended last Sunday. Under the themes of "objection to collusion between business and the government", "elimination of poverty" and "request for universal suffrage in 07/08", there were more than 10 parties, organizations and units joining the march, with their different requests and voices. The HKU Student Research Team, in the hope of learning and seeking the truth, took up the tasks of observation and head counting as usual.

Since the size of this march was relatively small to the previous threes, i.e. two July 1 Rallies and one January 1 Rally last year, full count was applied. Our team members took turns in counting. We took the footbridge over Queen's Road Central to Standard Chartered Bank Building as our checkpoint. Around 1,200 people were taken into account passing the checkpoint. According to the estimation on similar march by the HKU Public Opinion Programme, there should be about 3% to 8% of the demonstrators joining the rally in the mid-way or leaving early, and thus were excluded. Therefore the exact figure should be between 1,200 and 1,300.

The figure undoubtedly should be much lower than the expected one by the organizers. Our team thought that there are a few reasons:

1. The theme was too broad. In the march, there were altogether 3 themes, namely, "objection to collusion between business and the government", "elimination of poverty" and "request for universal suffrage in 07/08". There seems to be more choices superficially. However, to some people, a march without clear focus would deter them from it.

2. The Link REIT event has deducted marks of the democratic councilors in the public eyes. Some of the citizens may think that their handling of the event harms the benefit of the whole Hong Kong society. Therefore they refused to respond to the appeal.

3. The policy address did not infuriate the citizens. The January 1 Rally last year was held before the policy address. Participants hoped to put pressure on the government by speaking up. As the less controversial policy address was given after the march this year, the appeal was not as strong as before.

4. The Hong Kong society is stepping into a political downturn. Like Taiwan, after the record high turnout rate in the presidential election, the downturn was shown in the legislature one last year. The passion of Hong Kong citizens for politics may start to cool down after series of elections.

The smaller size of the "123 Rally", compared with the January 1 Rally this year, may both reflect the hope of citizens towards harmony. They are looking forward to a society with fewer meaningless arguments. Nobody would like to see adjournment of meetings due to struggles among camps in the Legislative Council again. In this election-free period, repositioning is an essential step for the political parties. They should grasp the chance to understand people's opinion and improve livelihood so as to pave the way for elections ahead.