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Opinion | Is there a point to Hong Kong’s pan-democrat camp? Only if it can unite and regain the veto power in Legco
Albert Cheng says having lost the power to block government bills in the Legislative Council, the pan-democrats must find a way to convince the public they are still relevant. First, they must apologise for their mistakes
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Why you can trust SCMP
The democracy campaign in Hong Kong has arguably come to a standstill. Ever since the failure of the last political reform, Hongkongers have gone silent on universal suffrage as they have lost faith in the unrealistic ideal.
Under the governance of Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, who is absolutely submissive to the Beijing government, “Hong Kong people ruling Hong Kong” is apparently in name only. However, Lam must always be aware that one day she will also be abandoned when she is no longer of the use to the central government.
Now that the core political foundation of Hong Kong, “one country, two systems”, has been shaken, political reform will not be relaunched any time soon. It is time for the pro-democracy camp to rethink seriously and carefully about where the democracy campaign is going and how.
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It has been 21 years since the handover, and although the pan-democrats have achieved nothing significant, the general public continues to support the camp so that the veto power in the Legislative Council is retained.
The political reform proposal has to be passed by a two-thirds majority of the members present; members’ motions and amendments of the Rules of Procedures have to be passed by a simple majority of members present.
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