Rebels with a cause
According to conventional wisdom, most functional constituencies for professionals, such as accountants and engineers, tend to favour the political establishment - both in Hong Kong and Beijing. When electing their political representatives, they attach a lot of weight to their professional records and seniority. They are politically conservative, and mistrust political parties.
Those long-held notions about Hong Kong's professional groups have been cast into doubt by the sub-sector elections for Election Committee members on December 10. In the legal sub-sector, a joint ticket of 20 candidates from the pan-democratic camp scooped up all 20 seats.
Shocked by the victory of several young, lesser-known peers, veteran barrister Cheng Huan lamented that 'party politics won the day', in a letter to this newspaper last week. The legal profession, he warned, has 'ceased to be an independent body of professional people'. He wondered whether the 'politicisation of the legal profession is a good thing for Hong Kong and our future relationship with Beijing'.
Although Mr Cheng nominated Democrats chairman Lee Wing-tat in the chief executive election last year, his constituents clearly think of him as pro-establishment - rightly or wrongly.
Whether in the higher education or the medical sub-sector, pro-establishment candidates were shunned by their peers in the December 10 poll.
The pan-democratic candidates campaigned on the theme that a contested chief executive election would be good for Hong Kong. That clearly affected the voting in some sub-sectors.
It is equally clear that deep changes on the city's political and economic scenes are altering the thinking of people in the professional sectors.
Young professionals feel increasingly upset by the unfair, unjust rules of the political game. They believe that their interests have not been taken care of by the leaders of their professional bodies.
Instead, they think the vested interests that represent them have gained by siding with the political establishment.
In a sense, the bloc vote in support of the pan-democratic tickets represents a vote of defiance against the vested interests. Indeed, long before the Election Committee elections, the professional sectors had become highly politicised.
Mr Cheng's comments reflect the failure of the pro-establishment camp in the professional sectors to get a good grip on the changing sentiments in their own professions.
Mr Cheng may genuinely believe that a huge party machine was behind the pan-democratic candidates. Yet, the secret of their success is perhaps as simple as a clear campaign message plus efforts, by telephone and the internet, to appeal for voters' support.
The simple message of calling on people not to give up their right to vote - however indirect a role that might play in electing the next chief executive - proved to be an impetus for change.
That approach has banished the gloomy prospect of yet another one-horse race for chief executive. So the momentum of change in functional constituencies seems likely to continue.
The professional sectors are diverse in composition and dynamics. So it would be rash to suggest that the Election Committee vote will fundamentally change the configuration of powers.
Democrats risk getting carried away by their success if they conclude that they could produce another small miracle in the 2008 Legislative Council functional constituency elections.
But it does seem as if the pro-establishment forces in functional constituencies are facing a stronger, better-organised challenge from a younger batch of liberal-minded peers.
The central and Hong Kong governments are also facing a challenge. They have relied on leading lights in the professional sectors to help shore up the administration's authority.
The two governments must prompt pro-establishment forces to reinvigorate themselves. And it would be at their peril if, after these elections, they ignored the voices of the non-establishment camp within the professional bodies.
Chris Yeung is the Post's editor-at-large
