There are people at the protest who are not Pro-China but specifically against these two youngsters.
There are people at the protest who are not Pro-China but specifically against these two youngsters.
There is also nothing to be gained from reducing the middle ground and polarising the electorate.
Personally, I'm not pro-beijing or localist. I believe Democracy as a concept is great but also know that Hong Kong being independent from China is not going to happen.
However, as much as I don't think any significant change can be accomplished, they should have a voice. It looks more and more like these two are not mature enough or savvy enough to be that voice.
Of course there is a middle ground, but thanks to Chinese Communist Party's congenital "either you're with us or an enemy of all of China (!)" defect and their control over framing the issue, the rational and compromising middle ground (aka traditional pan-dems) faces the following view:
Localism is really quite an obvious reaction to the increasingly controlling dictates from Beijing. The pro-CCP ruling minority's shrill attempts at denying elected democrats their seats over what is a mere procedural formality (imposed and worded by a ruthless one-party dictatorship) will only raise the stakes and increase the polarisation.
On the bright side the "united front" of the pro-CCP brigade showed the true colours and total lack of respect for democratic elections. Maybe they realize that unlike these two young legislator-elects, most of them only got into legislature thanks to CCP's Liason Office meddling or through artificial easily manipulated "functional constituencies".
Association with the CCP seems to imply strong sociopathic tendencies: they are incapable of admitting shame or wrong-doing, but always quick to vilify and shame others.
First - They were duly requested to take an oath and they didn't. Not by a silly error or some nuance. Precedent had been set in the LegCo chamber for retaking oaths but not sure that will come into play by a court.
Second - The chances the Pan Dems will only field one candidate in each constituency is pretty slim and stooges such as Ricky Wong will also run. The Pan-Dem vote will be split across 3-4 candidates while the pro-authoritarian camp will only have one in each.
Two seats lost....
I think you are right. Quite possible 1-2 seats lost. I believe one seat is in NT East - which the democrats won last time even against a localist, the DAB and several others. But it was close. The other two seats are in Kowloon West - not sure how that works would it be two separate by-elections first past the post for each seat, or the same hare quota but with only two seats available?
I suspect if the 3 really are barred then the pro-establishment camp may try to use their temporary majority in the geographic seats to re-write the rules of procedure.
And in another world, in the spirit of compromise and bridging the gap, the pro-establishment camp decided to lead by example.
Ann Chiang called a press conference to apologize for having offended some people by taking her oath in Mandarin. She admitted that many of her older voters and supporters could not understand Mandarin. In fact she only did it to shoe shine and gain brownie points, which she admitted on reflection was wrong and foolish.
Andrew Leung apologized for not having resolved the citizenship issue issue sooner. He admitted that in his long 15 years at Legco he had been vocally pro-China, adamant about the importance of showing loyalty to the motherland and insistent that all geographic legislators must renounce other citizenships. He admitted that he previously felt above normal people in HK and that such rules should not apply to him. Indeed he had not renounced his British citizenship before, because he wanted to hold onto it so he and his family would have a safe refuge in case things went badly in Hong Kong. As penance, and as a clever publicity stunt, he was filmed on TVB writing and personally delivering a letter to the British consulate asking that he be stripped not only of his British citizenship, but also the right to live in the UK and that he be barred from ever applying to regain his citizenship. The US, Canadian and Australian consulates were good enough to confirm that he was not wanted in any of their countries either, but that they respected him as a true Chinese patriot.
The Youngspiration duo awed by the sincerity shown by their former enemies, admitted they had gone too far and just wanted to register a protest. They apologised for the offence caused to some sectors of the community and for the good of HK they agreed to take the oath in the normal way.