Ending the party … with thought power?

Civic Passion activist Wong Yeung-tat made the news last week for co-hosting an alternative June 4 rally in Tsim Sha Tsui to counter the annual candlelight vigil in Victoria Park to remember the Tiananmen Square crackdown. Wong characterised his rally as "anti-communist" and called for the downfall of the party. But he surprised his critics on Sunday when he suggested a "non-violent" approach to toppling communist rule. "It's very simple, I will now tell you how to overthrow the Communist Party: when everyone believes that the Communist Party has to fall, it's just impossible for it not to fall!" Wong said on RTHK's City Forum. It surprised many activists, including Federation of Students secretary general Alex Chow Yong-kang, who said Wong appeared to be suggesting the use of "psychokinesis" - the pseudoscientific belief that the physical world can be manipulated by the power of thought alone. Democratic Party vice-chairman Lo Kin-hei suggested Wong test his psychic skills cleaning his teeth: "When you believe your teeth have to be white, it's just impossible for them not to be so!"

There are no permanent friends or enemies in politics. Even as Beijing loyalists condemned radical pan-democratic lawmakers who staged a marathon filibuster against the budget bill, one of their number, Wong Kwok-kin, is already missing one of the filibuster's loudest advocates, "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung. Leung began a four-week jail sentence a few days ago after he failed to overturn his 2012 convictions for criminal damage and disorderly behaviour. "I do quite miss him - and his humour. Indeed, the chamber without him is so quiet," Wong said yesterday, adding "Long Hair" could always communicate well with him. Perhaps there was some truth in legislature president Jasper Tsang Yok-sing's joke last month that lawmakers would suffer from Stockholm syndrome and start to fall in love with the pan-democrats who kept them in the chamber for hundreds of hours. It seems very likely that Wong is one of the victims.