After a two-year roller-coaster ride through the world of Hong Kong politics, Joseph Cheng Yu-shek, who's been instrumental in co-ordinating the local pro-democracy camp's election campaign, says it's time he returned to his professional life.
The chair professor of political science at City University will certainly continue to keep a close eye on Hong Kong's democratic movement, and perhaps do some voluntary work such as helping to call meetings for the pro-democracy camp, but he's resolved to leave the frontline work to others now that the elections have passed.
He plans to immerse himself in academia and write books on his area of expertise - Chinese foreign affairs and elections on the mainland at the grass-roots level. 'I have no intention of staying at the front line for a long term,' says Professor Cheng, convenor of Power for Democracy, a loose alliance of pro-democracy activists and groups that helped co-ordinate the pan-democratic forces in the recent Legislative Council elections, in his placid tone.
'I've never thought of being at the forefront of the campaign and carrying out the co-ordination task. But the situation just developed beyond everybody's expectations. Nobody would have envisaged that things would take such a dramatic turn - the Article 23 legislation and the National People's Congress Standing Committee's interpretation of the Basic Law,' he says.
So the group that was set up two years ago, when the democratic movement was in the doldrums, to organise forums and contact schools, churches and media for the promotion of democracy, became a key player in the co-ordination of the pro-democracy camp in both the District Council and Legislative Council elections. But Professor Cheng says it's time to hand over his post of convenor to someone else when his term ends in December. It was originally scheduled to end in June, but his tenure was extended because of the Legco election.
His work with Power for Democracy has taken up almost all his spare time since he accepted the almost impossible task of co-ordinating and coaching the city's disparate pro-democracy groups in the lead-up to last month's elections. Calling meetings or responding to media inquiries on the latest developments at all hours were just a few of his responsibilities. His motivation for taking on the task, Professor Cheng says, was to shoulder his responsibility as an intellectual at a 'crucial moment' in the city's history.
