Opinion | How Hong Kong’s pro-democracy camp can use the extended Legislative Council term to stay relevant

Name: Most of Hong Kong’s opposition lawmakers to serve out extended term in Legislative Council
Uploaded: 2020-10-05T00:30:13.000Z
Duration: 1 min 1 s
Description: Most of Hong Kong’s opposition lawmakers to serve out extended term in Legislative Council

Opposition lawmakers who stay on must prove themselves even more effective without resorting to the tactics of those who chose to depart

They should also find a viable candidate for the office of chief executive, one who Beijing would not categorically reject and who they can nominate and back

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Pan-democrat lawmakers take a group photo at the end of the 2019-2020 legislative session on July 17. Photo: Dickson Lee

Alice Wu

Published: 8:30am, 5 Oct 2020Updated: 8:33am, 5 Oct 2020

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.

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Most of Hong Kong’s opposition lawmakers to serve out extended term in Legislative Council

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?

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