Opinion | Democracy is not simply a yes-or-no vote, in Hong Kong or elsewhere
Alice Wu hopes the recent fervour for new think tanks in Hong Kong will encourage deeper reflection on our policies, thus contributing to our search for meaningful solutions
Ever since Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras prematurely declared his government's bailout referendum a "victory of democracy", I have been struck by how far politicians are willing to mangle the idea of democracy. The demos were, in fact, being played for fools, and it won't be the last time. It was no "victory" for the people, not by a long shot - aren't they now being forced to accept the very thing they voted "no" to, and on even harsher terms?
Democracy by referendum doesn't achieve much. Real-world problems are complex and are rarely resolved by yes/no or even multiple-choice solutions. People power - demos-cracy - isn't about wishing away debt, economic woes and social problems. We don't need to look at the Greek debt crisis to realise that we, too, have been chasing after the same illusory, either/or fixes.
The solutions vary, depending on who or what we blame for our political rut. It's someone else's incompetence. It's our "divisive" political culture. It's the "toxic" legislative-executive relationship. It's our lack of "genuine" universal suffrage, or lack of "genuine" democracy. It's our sensational news media. It could be our government's lack of vision, political will, and/or power. Or it could be our government having too much unchecked power. It's the pro-establishment's fault or the pan-democrats', the radicals' or the chief executive's, or Beijing's or God's.
At the end of the day, neither our preferences nor democracy can make our problems go away. They're not a matter of consumer choices and we can't vote them away. The trouble is, we suffer from a genuine lack of workable alternatives, as our failed debates on constitution reform have shown.
And perhaps that is a reason for what seems to be a renewed interest in think tanks lately. It's hard to believe that Hong Kong think tanks were considered a relatively "new phenomenon" in the 1990s. And now, we have three more being added to what has been described as "a crowded field".
How "crowded" the field is, is a matter of opinion. According to the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Programme at the University of Pennsylvania, there were 6,826 think tanks in the world in 2013. Asia had 1,201, and adding another three to Hong Kong's 30 doesn't seem too "crowded".
