District council elections: how Hong Kong opposition parties can reinvent themselves

With no presence in Legco and, soon, on the district councils, the opposition’s nomination failure is a chance to consider how they can better serve Hong Kong

April Zhang

Published: 4:30pm, 17 Nov 2023

Why you can trust SCMP

Hong Kong’s opposition parties have good reason to be disappointed. They have failed to secure enough nominations to allow any hopefuls to stand for the coming district council elections on December 10.

This hopeless feeling is captured in the words of Lo Kin-hei, chairman of the Democratic Party, the biggest opposition group in the city, when he said: “We feel a great sense of powerlessness.” The party has no seats in the Legislative Council, and will have no seats at the district level either after the elections.

But when Lo said they had “completely no idea” why their candidates had failed to get nominated, it shows they have turned a blind eye to reality.

It is quite clear, even to a casual observer of the city’s political situation, that this is a direct consequence of the 2019 anti-government protests and an indirect result of previous clashes between opposition parties and the government.

Not only have the opposition not convinced committee members to nominate them for the district elections, they have not convinced ordinary residents, such as myself, that they can advance the city’s democratic environment.

The 2019 protests gave the opposition camp an unprecedented landslide victory in the district council elections that year. Believing that the victory was an endorsement of the demands of the protesters, they vowed to push ahead with their agenda.

They adopted a confrontational approach towards government representatives who attended their meetings, raising irrelevant and sensitive issues such as the June 4 vigil. It became almost the norm for government representatives to walk out of their meetings.

Soon, hundreds of district councillors were resigning ahead of new oath-taking rules, which required them to pledge allegiance to the city’s Basic Law and special administrative region. Some councillors simply left the city without tendering their resignation, including Tuen Mun’s Lee Ka-wai. After he arrived in Britain, Lee announced on social media that he would not pledge allegiance to the Basic Law or the Hong Kong SAR.

Given this recent history, it should not come as a surprise that opposition parties are not seen by committee members as “patriots”. And only patriots can run for elected office.

The opposition camp’s previous behaviour has shown they are good at criticising. Yet, they have failed to show any capability for governing – they are good at picking fights, bad at formalising sound policies; good at talking about ideals, but bad at addressing real issues.

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They have championed the cause of democracy for the sake of democracy itself, without having shown how it would benefit the people of Hong Kong. They refused to acknowledge the context of complex political issues, reducing them to black-and-white problems. And it seems they would rather throw bananas than work towards a common legitimate political goal.

I believe they are sincere in wanting to make Hong Kong a freer and more open place. But, with little or no political shrewdness or real statesmanship, in a strange yet predictable twist, they have only succeeded in making things worse for themselves, others and the city in general.

Many from the opposition have been arrested and jailed. Many have emigrated. And now, the district council offices risk becoming an echo chamber of the government after the elections.

After failing to secure a presence on the official political platform, the opposition parties seem to have no role left to play. And it will remain that way if they just throw up their arms in despair.

Instead, they could take this opportunity to reinvent themselves, changing their political thrust to concentrate more on concrete issues rather than merely discussing ideals. They could declare that they have no political agenda except to make Hong Kong a better place.

Among the city’s many problems, they could focus on less overtly political ones, such as elderly healthcare, public housing, and illegal structures – or even disappearing traditional dim sum and students’ declining English skills. They could study these issues, find practical ways for improvement, do some actual work, measure their results, and make policy suggestions through the proper channels.

In doing so, they would encourage goodwill and gradually develop a systematic and effective mechanism that would enable them to have a real influence on the affairs of Hong Kong.

April Zhang is the founder of MSL Master and the author of the Mandarin Express textbook series and the Chinese Reading and Writing textbook series