The debate over whether the opposition should stay or boycott the extended term of the Legislative Council due to the postponement of elections wasn’t exactly resolved by the opinion poll conducted by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute. The results from those who claimed to be supporters of the pan-democrats turned out to be pretty inconclusive. Only 1.3 per cent more supported lawmakers serving in the extended term than those who opposed them doing so. Does the result justify the lawmakers of the localist faction – Eddie Chu Hoi-dick and Raymond Chan Chi-chuen – abandoning their posts as elected lawmakers? Either way, they only had the privilege of quitting because there were enough of their colleagues willing to serve out the extended term. As Chan noted, if more lawmakers had quit, the work of monitoring the pro-establishment lawmakers remaining in Legco would have to be done from outside the legislature. Chu and Chan got to quit on principle because enough pan-democrats choose the difficult and messy route of staying on to keep the government and pro-establishment camp in check. Although they opposed postponing the elections, to fulfil their obligation to Hongkongers and their public office, staying on is the responsible thing to do. That’s why it is of utmost importance for those remaining in the chamber to work together and demonstrate the value of an effective and meaningful opposition. Forging consensus and building real unity within the camp is essential. Radicals have driven wedges into the camp for years – imposing dogma at the expense of all else has been the camp’s undoing. What good has come out of disunity and fragmentation ? The art of politics – compromise – should not be a reduced to a glib epithet. It offers the political elbow room required to make imperfect but better progress, and this is precisely what has been missing from Hong Kong’s political landscape. This is a political tragedy not only for the opposition, but for the people of Hong Kong. When pan-democrat pranksters strike, the joke is on Hong Kong Lawmakers have been unable to deliberate with the intention of arriving at a compromise on the way forward, and they have almost forgotten how to follow through. Commissioning a public-opinion poll only passes the buck to the “people”. This is part of the reason these legislators have, over the years, made themselves irrelevant. Quitting en masse would be a gross dereliction of lawmakers’ duty to those who elected them – whether in keeping watch over the government and their political opponents, or being their constituents’ voice and defending their rights. This simple logic should not have been that difficult to grasp. The absence of dissent in Legco would be detrimental to the public good. It is perhaps a blessing in disguise that getting kicked out of the chamber is now seriously risky business. For those who have chosen to stay on, this is now an opportune moment to prove there’s a better way to get things done than obstruction. Not only do they need to prove themselves even more effective without Chu and Chan, they should use this extended term to find a viable candidate for the office of chief executive, someone who Beijing would not categorically reject and who they can nominate and back. This is the only route to making the opposition relevant. Collaborating is the only way to strengthen their political force and effect meaningful change, without the distraction of political fatalism that has only served to provoke and grandstand. We need an end to anti-majoritarianism – being accommodating to the few who do as they wish while the rest bear the consequences – that has crippled our opposition. Alice Wu is a political consultant and a former associate director of the Asia Pacific Media Network at UCLA