Young people in politics are HK's great hope for the future

The five Tertiary 2012 student candidates performed admirably in Sunday's Legislative Council by-elections. While they did not win in ballots, they won for their spirit.

Crystal Chow Ching, a former secretary general of the Hong Kong Federation of Students, captured 17,260 votes. That is not bad for a 23-year-old, first-time candidate. Unfazed by a lack of resources, the other student candidates also did reasonably well. I salute them for their courage.

The political significance of the by-elections is not the so-called referendum, since it was not that, but the historic participation of Hong Kong's young people in electoral politics in a formal, systemic way.

University of Hong Kong polls showed a significant increase in the number of voters aged 18 to 30 who voted this year compared to 2008 - up to 25 per cent from 19 per cent. In other words, one out of four votes this time around came from the post-1980s generation, which flexed its muscles recently during the debate over the high-speed rail link. Young people have emerged as a potent political force in Hong Kong.

This augurs well for our future, because the success of the 'one country, two systems' policy depends not only on the mainland asserting its sovereignty over the special administrative region, but also on Hong Kong exercising its autonomy as enshrined in the Sino-British Joint Declaration - an international treaty.

It would be counterproductive to try to make the city more like the mainland, as many short-sighted people advocate. It's more important for Hong Kong to preserve its strong points, like freedom of political expression.

The Federation of Students' campaign to put an end to functional constituencies in Legco will contribute greatly to facilitate real universal suffrage.