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| Pan-democrats have three less members, but ready to fight |
As the Legislative Council elections in early September were postponed due to pandemic concerns (cough cough), the government somehow wrangled a way to extend the sitting of Legco for another year with Beijing's consent.
That left lawmakers, particular pan-democrats who had planned to leave and those who were going to stay to ponder if they still wanted to keep those positions or change their minds.
That's because Beijing's decision of extended the term goes against the Basic Law, and that the lawmakers' mandate was over when the term ended.
It was such a gut-wrenching decision for them to make that they commissioned a poll conducted by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute and Chinese University's public opinion survey centre.
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| Lam says the bloc has three priorities in Legco |
The results were announced today in a press conference, but were hardly definitive. Of the 2,579 respondents, 47.1 percent said the lawmakers should stay, while 45.8 percent said they should leave, and 7 percent had a neutral position.
The "stay" camp didn't have a decisive majority, so the pan-democrats were back at square one to decide for themselves what to do.
Yesterday Raymond Chan Chi-chuen and Eddie Chu Hoi-dick announced they were leaving, and today Civic Party's Tanya Chan announced tearily that she would leave as well.
At the press conference, Democratic Party chairman Wu Chi-wai said the bloc, including all seven incumbents from his party, had made "a very difficult political judgment" to serve out the extended term.
"We believe it is important for us to maintain the battlefront in Legco to fight the tyranny," said Wu, who is now convenor of the new bloc. "We will relentlessly block all evil government policies, in hope of slowing down the erosion of freedom in Hong Kong."
Fellow Democratic Party lawmaker Lam Cheuk-ting said the 19 who decided to stay had established three priorities for the extended term: continue to pressure the administration over the plight of the 12 Hongkongers detained in Shenzhen; block amendments to Legco ordinances to investigate supporters of last year's anti-government protests; and to call for an early resumption of legislative elections.
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| Chan tearfully announced she would leave Legco |
Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung of the Labour Party had earlier announced he would leave, but is now staying.
Currently there are 65 lawmakers in Legco, 41 in the pro-establishment camp and previously 22 pan-democrats, now down to 19, and two independents.
So now what? Political scientist Ivan Choy Chi-keung of Chinese University believes the remaining pan-democrat lawmakers could become more radical in Legco.
"[Pan-democrats] might adopt a more confrontational approach towards the government in the council," he said. "They have to prove that they will not betray the democratic supporters."
They also need to be more coordinated in their efforts which means being united on every issue to have as much of a presence in Legco as possible; divisions within the camp will render them powerless, and so it won't be surprising if the pro-Beijing camp try to divide and conquer them.
Now that this quandary has been dealt with, can we talk about today's low-key announcement?
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| This is the blocked off PLA dock, an eyesore |
At the Central harbourfront, in front of Tamar, is a 150-metre long thin sliver of land that is barricaded with an ugly fence while weeds have grown in the unkempt space.
Meanwhile people walking along the waterfront have to purposely go around it, and for years, activists have campaigned for the dock to be opened up most of the time for public use.
However, the cordoned off area is a military dock for the People's Liberation Army to use, and today it is officially theirs.
As of this morning at 7am it was declared a military restricted zone that will be managed and used by the PLA Hong Kong Garrison from now on.
Does this mean soldiers will be posted at this strip of land? Or will it continue to remain a locked-up eyesore?
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| These people are not wearing masks or distancing |
In any event, during this morning's ceremony, 11 special guests stood shoulder to shoulder and were not wearing masks. They included Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and her deputy Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, and liaison office director Luo Huining.
How is it that they can stand together and police aren't ticketing them for not social distancing or not wearing masks?
Seems like a two-tier system going on...
Or should we wait what happens in the next two weeks?
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