As one of the participants of the July 1 march, I firmly believe that the turnout numbers were underestimated by the police and exaggerated by the Civil Human Rights Front.
Nevertheless, one thing for sure is that the turnout was large enough to show citizens' disaffection with the government is serious.
The participants, braving wind and rain, called for remedies to eliminate Hong Kong's countless social problems.
They demanded mainly bona-fide universal suffrage and for Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to stand down.
I accept that the government has successfully addressed some of the city's social problems, such as parallel trading and the influx of pregnant women from the mainland.
However, that is not enough. Also, these minor successes are doomed to be overshadowed by the government's failures to deal with a variety of problems, such as soaring house prices, the widening wealth gap, light pollution and waste disposal, to name but a few.
