Ronny Tong says pan-democrats' plan to veto reform package goes too far

Ronny Tong Ka-wah of the Civic Party has hit out at his fellow pan-democrats for a lack of "political wisdom" in their fight for universal suffrage.

He called for compromise and recognition of the public desire for the 2017 reform package to be passed by the legislature.

"Today, I totally believe that no one in the democracy camp is suitable for politics. They don't have political wisdom. Even though you are very much resolute in striving for something, you should not go so far that there is no turning back," Tong said in a TVB interview yesterday.

Pan-democrats have vowed to vote against any government reform package based on the framework laid down by Beijing last August, regardless of public opinion. The package needs the support of a two-thirds majority in the legislature to be passed.

"Our only political chip is the power to veto [the reform package]," Tong said. "So, we should make use of this to achieve the biggest possible political gains. Now we can't get [genuine] universal suffrage for the chief executive election, [so] we should consider the second-best option, to strive for universal suffrage for Legislative Council elections."

Democratic Party chairwoman Emily Lau Wai-hing said she did not believe her fellow party members would agree with Tong's strategy.

Tong is widely considered a dissident in the pan-democrats' camp. Last week, he said he might support the 2017 reform package if the government promised to lower the nominating threshold for chief executive hopefuls in the 2022 poll and scrap functional-constituency seats in the 2020 Legco elections.