Breaking the mould in Hong Kong politics
Bernard Chan says Starry Lee shows that the background, age and style of party leaders is changing
Starry Lee Wai-king has become the first chairwoman of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong. Most of our political parties are headed by women: Emily Lau Wai-hing leads the Democrats, Audrey Eu Yuet-mee heads the Civic Party, Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee runs the New People's Party and Erica Yuen Mi-ming leads People Power.
This could be celebrated as a success story for women. However, few commentators mentioned this aspect of Lee's leadership of the DAB.
To many observers, the story here is not about gender, but background, age and style. In particular, I think it reflects major changes in the way Hong Kong will be governed.
The leaders of Hong Kong's main pro-democracy parties have typically been from the professions and middle class, with smaller parties linked to labour. Pro-Beijing groups, with extensive neighbourhood and other networks, have usually recruited from the grass roots and unions. These are roughly the profiles of the main groups involved in open elections (the pro-business parties are mainly focused on functional constituencies).
Lee in some ways breaks this mould. She was born into a working-class family and brought up on a public housing estate. But she went to university and could well have become a partner in a major accounting firm. By the standards of many older DAB figures, she comes across as open and friendly. She is partly overseas educated and is someone many of the middle class and young can relate to. As the overseas media have noticed, unlike many of her older colleagues, she can do interviews in English.
Critics will point out that, as part of the well-organised pro-government factions, she has been groomed as a new, modern face for the DAB. But that leads me to my point. The DAB and its allies are serious about being able to win elections in future.