Outgoing DAB lawmaker Ip Kwok-him calls on Hong Kong pro-establishment camp to communicate frankly in next Legislative Council term
Pro-Beijing lawmaker has been a politician since 1991; he rose to become coordinator of pro-government forces in Legco and is now an executive councillor
The pro-establishment camp must continue to communicate “frankly” within its own ranks when the Legislative Council meets again in October, especially after pan-democrats escalated their confrontational tactics against the government in the term that has just ended.
Those were the final words from lawmaker Ip Kwok-him from the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong, who is stepping down after 15 years in Legco.
In the last four years, Ip has been the coordinator among 43 pro-establishment lawmakers, earning him the nickname “the monitor”.
The nickname was also a reminder of Ip’s experience with students, as he was an alumnus and geography teacher at the Beijing-friendly Hon Wah Middle School before being elected to the then Central and Western district board in 1991.
“In the 1980s, I witnessed the [beginning] of a representative political system in Hong Kong. It encouraged me to commit more to society ... and I ran in a constituency where many of my students and their parents lived,” Ip recalled. His bid was also partly inspired by his late twin brother Ip Kwok-chung, who was elected a district councillor in Yau Ma Tei in 1985, he said.