Image counts
Sometimes the obvious is easy to overlook in the aftermath of elections. However, it is rather surprising that the real significance of last Sunday's district council elections has been so glibly ignored. Maybe this is because commentators are reluctant to draw what appear to be mundane lessons from an election result, yet there is nothing mundane about the fact that this poll marks the arrival of 'normal' politics in Hong Kong.
The word 'normal' is subjective, but there are a number of objective measures to judge normality in this context. First, voters decided, as they do in many places around the world, to overturn the stunning result of the preceding election. In 2003, the pan-democrats swept the board on the back of a campaign against an immensely unpopular government. This was an abnormal result. Now, the government is more popular and there is less discontent.
This brings us to the second 'normal' aspect of this election: given a level playing field with no overwhelming single issue, the probability is that the largest and best organised political party will prevail. No one seriously doubts this title belongs to the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong.
However, organisational skills are only part of the story, and the DAB cannot win elections purely on the basis of its vote-gathering abilities. It also derives support from appearing to be credible and reliable.
However - and this is a little strange - it seems to garner support despite, not because of, its ideology or policies. On the one hand, the party stands against majority opinion on the issue of democracy; on the other, because of ever-closer ties to the government, it is moving away from its traditional association with workers' causes. Last, but not least, it is built on the foundations of the clandestine Communist Party in Hong Kong, which has never been popular. The party's sensitivity over its origins is seen by its extreme reluctance to even discuss this matter.
In theory, therefore, voters could be expected to shun the DAB. It is a sign of the normalisation of Hong Kong politics that voters brush aside ideological considerations in favour of image, personalities and, in the case of local elections, the performance of party representatives in office.
The pendulum will almost certainly swing against the DAB at some time, as it does to all parties in societies that enjoy free elections. Overexcited expectation always greets an election victory and today there is much talk of the democrats being a spent force. Much the same kind of nonsense was heard in 2003, when the DAB was described in these terms.
Some people who speak glibly about the failure of the democrats rush to conclude that this is synonymous with dwindling support for democratic ideals. However, they seem not to have noticed that other anti-democrat parties, notably the Liberals, also did badly. It therefore seems reasonable to conclude that this election marks the end of single-issue voting. Although there is a clear divide between democrats and their opponents, voters are not focusing on this alone.
So far, so normal. But even more 'normal' is the resignation of Frederick Fung Kin-kee to take responsibility for the poor performance of the Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood, together with Albert Ho Chun-yan's attempt to quit as leader of the Democratic Party, alongside the actual resignation of Lee Wing-tat as its election strategist.
These rapid resignations are in marked contrast to the extreme reluctance of government ministers to take responsibility for massive failures in their departments and the even more shameful attempts to pretend, once they finally step down, that this has nothing to do with their failures in office. The party officials, and this includes the DAB's Tsang Yok-sing - who resigned as head of the Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong in the aftermath of the 2003 election - are demonstrating an honourable and appropriate response by leaders who believe that the buck stops somewhere.
Finally, and most amusingly, the results of this election have prompted some commentators to suggest that the way ahead for political parties is to become less political. This is a little like suggesting that the police would be more effective if they stopped arresting criminals on the grounds that it upsets them. The business of political parties is to promote ideas, formulate policies and provide leadership in the struggle to improve society - this is called politics, and not everyone can be expected to agree with these ideals. The notion that parties should abandon what might be described as a visionary role to be replaced by a vague concept of 'pragmatism' is to suggest that Hong Kong should be operating in the shadow of a dim light bulb rather than the bright lights that it deserves.
Stephen Vines, a Hong Kong-based journalist and entrepreneur, is a member of the Civic Party
