Radio star turns up volume on Democrats

With his rapid but articulate delivery, Tam Tak-chi is better known not as a radical activist but as radio DJ "Fast Beat" - one half of a popular combination with "Slow Beat" Raymond Chan Chi-chuen.

But while "Slow Beat" was elected as a People Power lawmaker in 2012, Tam remained better known for his more than a decade of work in television and radio - including some unimpressive forays into soap-opera acting - than for his political views.

That all changed last month, when Tam surprised his fans by wading into the heart of a political battle that has left the pan-democratic camp in disarray.

Tam led a group of People Power members - under the banner of "Supporters of Occupy Central" - to disrupt an "oath-taking" event by the Democratic Party in support of the planned civil disobedience movement.

The chaotic scenes were an embarrassment for the Democrats, a party opponents say has wavered in its demands for democracy since party members held a closed-door meeting with Beijing officials at the central government's liaison office four years ago. That was against the advice of allies who had rejected proposals put forward by the government for the last chief execution election in 2012.

But those allies have this time come to the defence of the party, saying Tam's demonstration in no way helped to unite the city's pan-democrats in their pursuit of universal suffrage for 2017.

"Unite?" Tam asked in response. "Say there's a man who always beats his wife violently. Only by way of a divorce could the woman get a new life," he said of his group's attitude to its erstwhile allies. The Democratic Party is more closely aligned with other moderate groups such as the Civic Party, Labour Party and the Professional Commons.