Opinion | Pan-democrats must play no part in perpetuating Hong Kong's small-circle Election Committee
Frank Ching says a vote against the government's electoral reform proposal will mean, unfortunately, a vote for the Election Committee
Hong Kong's pan-democratic legislators are in a dilemma. For ages, they have denounced the Election Committee for holding "small-circle elections" to choose the chief executive and called for an end to such an undemocratic practice. But now, they are vowing to perpetuate the Election Committee by promising to veto Beijing's decision on universal suffrage in 2017.
To be sure, the National People's Congress Standing Committee decision will not result in a fully democratic process, but a veto of that proposal is a vote for the Election Committee. There is no other way to put it.
It also blocks reform of the Legislative Council.
The question is not over the voting process, since all five million people in Hong Kong will be able to vote. The question is how candidates will be chosen.
The founding chairman of the Democratic Party, Martin Lee Chu-ming, proposed in 2013 that the Election Committee be transformed into the nominating committee, which would produce five candidates. Lee was sure one of the candidates would be a democrat. Under pressure, he withdrew his proposal the next day.
The key difference between Lee's proposal and Beijing's is that instead of five, there will be two or, at most, three candidates. How likely is it that one of them will be a democrat?
