Pan-democrats must own up to mistakes behind election losses
Albert Cheng says the Democratic Party, in particular, should accept blame for its 2010 backroom deal on political reform, and not point fingers
Following the Legislative Council election, I wrote a commentary evaluating the outcome, calling it a manipulated affair.
From the results of the so-called super seats in the district council functional constituency, I detected the hand of the central government and suggested that Lau Kong-wah, vice-president of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, was "sacrificed" to make way for the Democratic Party's Albert Ho Chun-yan. I said it was a way of rewarding the Democrats for their "ice-breaking" talks with the central government's liaison office two years ago to resolve their differences over the political reform package.
No doubt Beijing would have regarded it as a fair trade-off, especially after Ho gave up his seat in New Territories West, making it easier for the DAB to get three members elected there. One unpopular Lau for three seats in Legco is definitely a good deal, while it also means Beijing has better prospects of good future relations with the Democratic Party.
Of course, some people disagreed with my analysis. Most disappointing was the reaction of Ho and his party, which has pledged to boycott DBC Radio, which I founded. They accused me of smearing the reputation of Ho and his party because I was at war with the liaison office. Acting chairwoman Emily Lau Wai-hing demanded that I apologise and retract what I said. I invited key members of the party - including Lau - to come on my radio talk show to discuss the issue; I have so far received no reply.
The Democratic Party is all about facilitating communication and giving a voice to the voiceless. Yet, their actions go against the fundamental principle of their party. It shows party veterans are out of touch.
It's obvious that the Democrats sold out the people of Hong Kong by accepting a modified model of democratic reform. They are now pointing an accusatory finger at me because I am not afraid to expose the party's ugly underbelly.
It's no big deal that the party reached a compromise deal with the central government over Hong Kong's democratic reform. But conducting backroom politics is totally different. They did that, so they shouldn't blame others for criticising their conduct. And the Democrats have only themselves to blame for their unimpressive performance at the election.