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My Take
Thursday, 11 October, 2012, 10:00am
Bad boys of Legco are no radicals
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Legislator Leung Kwok-hung, aka "Long Hair", with a scroll demanding universal suffrage and retirement protection for all, makes a political statement at the swearing-in ceremony of the Hong Kong Legislative Council October 10, 2012. Photo: AFP
Coughing repeatedly; unfurling a banner of Dr Sun Yat-sen; and shouting a question about whether newly elected Legislative Council president Jasper Tsang Yok-sing was a communist. Were those all the disruptive antics our bad boys of Legco could muster during their swearing-in yesterday? No helium balloons or throwing of bananas? Frankly I am a bit disappointed.
Their fans no doubt expected more of League of Social Democrats' "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung and People Power lawmakers Wong Yuk-man and Albert Chan Wai-yip. The trio will have to work harder if they hope to keep their reputation as "radical" pan-democrats.
Of course, "radical" is a misnomer. Whenever our reporters describe them as such, it inevitably provokes a few reader comments that we should stop calling them radicals when all they are pushing for is democracy. Our readers are right. Everyone is for democracy nowadays. The Basic Law says that's Hong Kong's ultimate political goal. Even Beijing has promised it to Hong Kong. So there is nothing radical about that.
Leung's idol Che Guevara was radical. Karl Marx was radical. But, I hate to break it to you - there is nothing radical about Leung.
He might have been protesting long before it became fashionable. But times have changed. Today, even the secondary-school kids in the Scholarism movement - of anti-national-education fame - can command a much larger crowd than Leung at the drop of a hat. Rather Wong, Leung and Chan are more like naughty schoolboys who provoke their teachers to kick them out of class so they don't have to stay and do schoolwork.
They never refer to their Legco briefs, leading to suspicions they have never read them. After disrupting a Legco session, they get thrown out by security guards, leaving the more diligent lawmakers, many of them pan-democrats, to stay and do the people's business.
The desire for democracy is not the same as achieving it. By demanding democracy now, our Legco bad boys are denouncing all those, like the Democratic Party, who show willingness to negotiate and compromise.
Merely shouting down officials and obstructing negotiations will not get us to the Promised Land. Sadly, many of their fans don't seem to appreciate that.
This article first appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition on Oct 11, 2012 as MY TAKE Bad boys of Legco are no radicals
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7Comments
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bluechinagroup Oct 12th 2012
1:33am
1:33am
@babyhenry Either way SCMP wins since their comment section is active. :-)
babyhenry Oct 11th 2012
6:54pm
6:54pm
Must be hard writing nowadays.
U get shout at if you call them radicals, you get shout at even if reject they are radicals.......
U get shout at if you call them radicals, you get shout at even if reject they are radicals.......
SpeakFreely Oct 11th 2012
5:04pm
5:04pm
I care less about radical or not. But I am disturbed and concerned the cough swearing-in is incomplete or even illegal. In court if we swear in like this will be considered as a contempt? Can you and i as a normal citizen has the right to do a similar coughing swearing in court? They are law makers so they have the right act above the law? This will teach our youngsters to get around things whatever they like. I hope our law makers look into this or explain to us how this works.
ianson Oct 11th 2012
8:32am
8:32am
And how does your last sentence, Mr Lo, sit with the point of your article? The fundamental tenet of radicalism is "No Negotiation" on matters of principle. The fact Leung Kwok-hung and others refuse to sit down and negotiate, as you suggest is necessary to the achievement of anything, is a core feature of radicalism. Radicalism suggests operating outside the system that commands the status quo and that is effected by, for example, not participating in the sham legislature that stands as a daily affront to our democratic aspirations. And what nonsense you drum up when trying to belittle Leung's popularity; at the recent poll, he proved beyond argument he has widespread support, certainly more than any other candidate in his constituency. So go back to the drawing board, Mr Lo, and write opinion based on fact for a refreshing change.
wang.feng Oct 11th 2012
8:51am
8:51am
Posting on behalf of reader by email request:
Your comment makes me believe that you have been `forced' to defend whatever the so-called pan-demo camp over there has been doing, including compromising with the regime in the north as you said.
Don't forget whatever they did or did not do in the past two decades also contributed to the present state of political economic consequences over the Chinese colony there, man. Don't think any reasonable man like you and I would like it in the first place.
What Yukman and others have been doing is to keep criticising their omissions of duties and impacts on the moronic majority while waiting if not pushing for a way out, and hopefully at the same time situations in the mainland can change sooner so that the regime gets changed and the HKG gets changed before everybody feels happier. bob
Your comment makes me believe that you have been `forced' to defend whatever the so-called pan-demo camp over there has been doing, including compromising with the regime in the north as you said.
Don't forget whatever they did or did not do in the past two decades also contributed to the present state of political economic consequences over the Chinese colony there, man. Don't think any reasonable man like you and I would like it in the first place.
What Yukman and others have been doing is to keep criticising their omissions of duties and impacts on the moronic majority while waiting if not pushing for a way out, and hopefully at the same time situations in the mainland can change sooner so that the regime gets changed and the HKG gets changed before everybody feels happier. bob
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