PLAGUED BY INTERNAL rifts, the Democratic Party has failed to keep pace with changing political moods and developments. Once hailed as a guardian of civil liberties, the group is apparently set on an irreversible course of decline.
The so-called Young Turks among the Democrats are reportedly poised to abandon ship ahead of next year's district council polls. About 50 activists are said to be ready to desert to launch a new party or switch allegiance to The Frontier.
Last month, former vice-chairman Anthony Cheung Bing-leung founded a new policy group under the banner Synergynet. About half of its 60 members are incumbent legislators and district councillors from the Democratic Party.
Mr Cheung insists his move will not split the Democrats. But it is a reality that some party moderates have found it so ineffective that they consider it necessary to set up a new platform.
The divide will be even more conspicuous when party elders Martin Lee Chu-ming and Szeto Wah bow out, as they are expected to do after serving their current four-year term in the Legislative Council.
Founded on October 2, 1994, the Democratic Party is a merger of three progressive pressure groups. It now has 581 ordinary and 13 associate members. In contrast, its arch-rival, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong, has 1,971 members. The Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood, on the other hand, has shied away from calling itself a full-blown party. It has just 104 members.
That means, out of a population of 6.8 million, there are fewer than 4,000 people associated with these three or any other political party. The SAR is carved into 18 districts, thus leaving an average of fewer than 200 party activists in each region.