Frank Ching

Opinion | Hong Kong elections: opposition must be realistic and not just oppose Beijing

Hong Kong democrats still think in terms of opposition and resistance after 23 years in the minority, something the government has fostered by not sharing power

If they do win a majority, they should provide policy alternatives that would improve the social and economic welfare of the people, not just pick fights

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Pro-democracy camp members (from left) Au Nok-hin, Benny Tai and Andrew Chiu Ka-yin hold a press conference in Mong Kok on June 9, calling on the public to participate in the opposition campaign for “35-plus” seats in the Legislative Council. What the camp intends to do with a majority should it get one remains unclear. Photo: Nora Tam

Frank Ching

Published: 6:00am, 22 Jul 2020Updated: 6:16am, 22 Jul 2020

Count Otto von Bismarck, the noted German statesman, is known for saying, “Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable – the art of the next best.” That is to say, aim high but know when to settle.

That seems to be a lesson Hong Kong’s localists haven’t learned yet. Leading strategist and legal scholar Benny Tai Yiu-ting, who aimed high while organising the 2014 Occupy Central campaign but later admitted his civil disobedience campaign did not cause Beijing to make any concessions, doesn’t appear to have learned it either.

The opposition attempt to win a majority of Legislative Council seats in September is not exceptional; it is what opposition parties try to do. Usually, though, the opposition party has a policy programme it wants to implement after it becomes the majority party. This is where the Hong Kong opposition is different.

From 1997 on, the political landscape in Hong Kong has featured the pro-democracy and pro-establishment camps. The government has made no attempt to be inclusive, consult the opposition or share power. The pan-democrats developed a negative mentality, automatically opposing government policy without providing alternative proposals.

This attitude is reflected in the localists’ constant talk of resistance, not of providing good government. That is because, for the last 23 years, the democrats have always been in the minority. The only power they had lay in opposition. The government, by not giving them a role, helped foster this attitude.

02:07

More than 610,000 vote in Hong Kong’s pro-democracy opposition primary elections

Now, the opposition feels it has a chance of becoming the majority party. Even so, it continues to think in terms of resistance and opposition, not of providing leadership.