OpinionThe ball is in Beijing's court
Emily Lau pledges that the Democratic Party will sharpen the focus on its goals, and says it will work with central leaders for universal suffrage - provided they reach out in good faith
Last Monday, the two newly elected vice-chairmen of the Democratic Party and I were invited to appear on Allen Lee's talk show on Now TV. Lee noted that, besides me, three political parties had chairwomen - Selina Chow Liang Shuk-yee of the Liberal Party, Audrey Eu Yuet-mee of the Civic Party and Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee of the New People's Party.
There is further good news. On Wednesday, Park Geun-hye was elected the first woman president of South Korea.
As Mao Zedong once said, women hold up half the sky. I certainly hope that many more women in Asia and elsewhere will be elected to high political office. When The Frontier merged with the Democratic Party in late 2008, one of my objectives was to consolidate the pro-democracy movement and to encourage more women and young people to go into politics.
Today, four years later, this remains my unswerving goal. I was elected the first chairwoman of the Democratic Party a week ago, defeating fellow legislator Sin Chung-kai by a small margin, after I was encouraged to enter the race at the last minute by party members.
Members want the new leadership to implement reforms. Some have expressed the desire that its leaders should project a strong image of the party. Thus, the reforms we undertake will aim to give the public a clearer and sharper image of the Democratic Party, what we stand for and how determined and capable we are to achieve these goals. In so doing, we hope to gain people's confidence and support.
But reforms do not mean jettisoning many things the party stands for. There is still a lot of respect and support for former chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan, who stepped down in September to take responsibility for the party's unsatisfactory results in the Legislative Council elections, in which the number of Democratic Party legislators was reduced from eight to six.
What the party's new leadership will try to do is to work closely with members of its central committee, Legco members, district councillors and district officers. We will give ample opportunities to members, particularly the younger ones, to assume positions of responsibility and to showcase their talents.