A man walks past a banner featuring Starry Lee, in To Kwa Wan on July 6, a constituency in Kowloon where she first won as an independent in 1999. She founded her political career in grass-roots and community work but now, district councillors have drastically diminished influence. Photo: AFP
Opinion
Alice Wu
Alice Wu
While Starry Lee’s political future looks bright, the DAB faces irrelevance
Starry Lee is leaving party leadership and district council work behind to focus on national politics
For her successor, the challenge is to find a future for the DAB in a changed landscape where political parties are sidelined
After eight years, Starry Lee Wai-king is stepping down from the leadership of Hong Kong’s largest political party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB).
Lee, who cited concerns about her workload as the sole Hong Kong member of the country’s top legislative body – the National People’s Congress (NPC) Standing Committee – as her reason for not seeking re-election as DAB chairwoman, was the first woman to head the party. She is also Hong Kong’s youngest representative and only its second woman to ascend to China’s apex of power. These are extraordinary achievements, and Lee is only 49 years old.
She had earlier said she would not be contesting the district council elections in December. As a Kowloon City district council member representing the same constituency, To Kwa Wan North, for more than two decades, Lee not only started her phenomenal political career there in 1999, but also survived the greatest electoral setback of the DAB and pro-establishment camp in 2019.
The DAB lost 96 seats under Lee’s watch, going from 117 to just 21, even though Lee held onto her seat, winning against “Long Hair” Leung Kwok-hung.
Lee was first and foremost a district councillor for To Kwa Wan North. She won as an independent and didn’t join the DAB until after 2003, when the party suffered its first electoral setback due to the political fallout over its support for the Article 23 legislation on national security. As a young professional woman at that time, Lee’s decision to join the DAB during one of the party’s toughest times was shrewd.
In politics and life, timing is everything. Lee seems to be a master of that. Joining the DAB catapulted her political career onto its incredible trajectory. And Lee was a perfect fit for the party. The first three chairmen were instrumental in its founding and growth, and Lee’s tenure proved that the party was able to pass the baton to new blood without incident.
Legislative Council president Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen and Starry Lee speak to the media in the Legislative Council after Xiao Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, visited on April 16. Photo: Kahon Chan
And now, with her announcement to retire from party politics to focus on her legislative work, we can be pretty sure that it, too, is perfectly timed. After the catastrophic defeat in the 2019 district council elections, Lee led the party to win a record 19 seats in the Legislative Council in 2021.
Despite the drastic reduction – in number and proportion – of geographical constituencies, where seats are directly elected by the public, the DAB won the most seats in its history, taking half of the 20 available. Lee is leaving the helm while she’s ahead.
In grass-roots and community work, where Lee founded her political career, district councillors now have drastically diminished influence – the new and improved district councils have been stripped of any real power. And given the tectonic shift of the centre of power to the Election Committee, especially in the Legislative Council, the community-based work that is at the core of traditional parties like the DAB has become politically irrelevant.
Lee leaves her successor, expected to be selected next month, with the challenge of navigating through this political quagmire. When political parties are sidelined, and don’t have an opposition to fight against, what is their future?
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Hong Kong's revamped electoral system bolsters pro-Beijing influence in key decision-making bodies
Hong Kong's revamped electoral system bolsters pro-Beijing influence in key decision-making bodies
The DAB holds just five seats in the Election Committee constituency in Legco. Size, in this case, will be the biggest hurdle. Sailing this big ship in the sea of change with very little room to manoeuvre, where flexibility and adaptability are crucial, is not going to be easy. It will take an enormous amount of soul-searching, and a coming to terms with where political parties fit into the new political calculus.
As for Lee, with many productive years still ahead of her, her role in the NPC Standing Committee will keep her as busy as ever. I have every confidence that it will allow her to reach new heights in this new chapter in her political career. But the same cannot be said for her party.
Alice Wu is a political consultant and a former associate director of the Asia Pacific Media Network at UCLA
