Tang determined to make mark on LegCo for NTE
Former Labour legislator confident he can win support by addressing a broad range of issues
Former Legislative Council member Bill Tang Ka-piu is confident voters will come to their senses in the current social atmosphere and return him to the legislature in next month’s by-election.
Tang hopes to win the New Territories East geographical constituency seat on March 11. He lost his bid for the seat in the September 2016 LegCo election. But Tang says he is coming back stronger and is confident he will regain lost ground.
Tang was elected to represent the Labour functional constituency in LegCo in 2012. Four years later, he unsuccessfully sought the NT East constituency.
“Since losing the election, I have, without blaming anything, reviewed my inadequacies and have not deserted the NT East residents,” he told China Daily when taking time out from a street rally at a Ma On Shan housing estate.
“In the past, I focused on labor and grassroots issues. But as I campaigned for a seat in a big geographical constituency, I did not handle many cross-sector affairs,” Tang recalled.
“Despite losing, I have not run away. The period in between has given me more time to visit the local districts to find out problems the people face from wider approaches and help them solve the problems,” he noted.
Discussing his chances, Tang — who had 26,931 votes two years ago and will once again face “pan-democratic” camp representative Gary Fan Kwokwai (who had 31,595 votes) — said things had changed. Fan is frequently associated with localist groups who are hostile to cross-boundary traders and visitors from the mainland.
He is also aware that the proportional representation method used in LegCo elections affected the election result. In the by-election, just one seat is available. The social atmosphere is also more harmonious than in 2016, which may not be advantageous to the opposition camp.
“We have confidence in Hong Kong citizens and I have confidence in my campaign,” he said. “Will the voters elect people who create trouble, filibuster, paralyze the legislature and stir up confrontations?” Tang asked.
“We must come back to senses, stop internal exhaustion and move on.”
Close relations
Tang is a member of the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions. Recently, he joined the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong and carries the banners of both organizations in this by-election.
“The two organizations are brothers,” he stressed. “Since the DAB is a very well-established political party with deep roots at the district level, my campaign will be more smooth and far-reaching with their help in a big geographical constituency like this, and I hope such a combination will yield greater synergy so that one plus one is more than two.”
Tang is very upbeat since becoming a member on the labor side of the Labour Advisory Board. Employer and employee representatives have reached common ground on abolishing the Mandatory Provident Fund offset scheme, which lets employers deduct severance and long service payments from MPF contributions. The government is expected to unveil a concrete proposal by next month.
“Nobody thought we would reach consensus with the employers so soon. This is a very good example because we bridged the big gap through communication and discussion instead of confrontation and radical actions,” Tang said.
“The previous and current governments have made huge efforts to remove offsetting because they know it is very important to retirement protection while there are very strong voices in society seeking to remove it,” he added.
Tang faces five other nominees in his bid for the NT East seat — Estella Chan Yuk-ngor, Christine Fong Kwok-shan, Joyce Chiu Pui-yuk, Nelson Wong Sing-chi and the NeoDemocrats’ Fan.