My Take | Crisis may result in real political reform
- With the pan-democrats likely to re-emerge as a powerful bloc after next year’s Legislative Council election, they will have a historic opportunity for change, if they are willing to give some ground
Every cloud has a silver lining. So, is there anything good that may come out of the current crisis that is tearing Hong Kong apart? Well, maybe, just maybe, political reform is on the cards.
Given the current situation, it’s likely that in next year’s Legislative Council election, the pan-democrats will win big in the geographical sector, and even a few more functional seats. They won’t win a supermajority but may still re-emerge as a powerful bloc.
In such an eventuality, the question is, what are they going to do with the new power? They can go back to their knee-jerk criticism and obstructionism. Or they can take responsibility for this historic opportunity, perhaps the last one there is for Hong Kong: political reform.
But to start with, they have to give some ground. In 2015, they cited “international standards” of democracy as the excuse to veto the government’s electoral reform package. This time, they will have to be more open to what Beijing is ready to give, not what their ideal is for a democracy.
However flawed, the old package still offered “one person, one vote” for the election of the chief executive. And its acceptance would have meant reform for Legco as well. Had it passed, we would have been debating how to turn most, perhaps even all, Legco seats into directly elected ones next year. That would have consumed the city’s political energy, rather than letting loose angry young people onto our streets today.
So let’s play this movie again. There will be negotiations. Beijing will hopefully give a little, say, allowing three or four candidates it approves to run in the CE election, instead of just two.