My Take | End of the road for Dennis Kwok
- Pan-democrats hide their political moderation, their most valuable asset, from anti-government radicals and, in the end, make themselves irrelevant to both sides
Barrister Dennis Kwok is the latest prominent pan-democrat to quit politics completely. His departure from the local political scene follows that of democracy icons Anson Chan Fang On-sang and Martin Lee Chu-ming, as well as former fellow Civic Party colleague Tanya Chan.
Kwok blamed his disqualification as a lawmaker, along with three other pan-democrats, by the government for his decision to quit.
That is no doubt a big part of the problem. But the reality is that they have no grass-roots or rank-and-file support within the anti-government protest movement, which was, in fact, highly critical of their joining the extended one-year legislature instead of quitting.
For once, both the protest movement and the government agree: those pan-dems have no place in the extended Legco.
After the four’s disqualification, 15 other pan-dems quit Legco in support. But it was too late. By joining the extended Legco session in the first place, they have already discredited themselves in the eyes of the protest movement, which greeted their mass resignation with derision.
