Election offers chance to shape HK’s future

Yang Sheng says the Kowloon West poll is a major opportunity for voters to elect someone who respects the Basic Law while working for city’s best interests

Registered voters in the Kowloon West geographical constituency will have another opportunity to help determine the future of the city by exercising their voting rights this Sunday when the byelection for the Legislative Council seat will be held. Five candidates will be vying for one of the six seats that have become vacant after some legislatorselect were disqualified for violating the Basic Law and local laws during the swearing-in ceremony in October 2016.

Over the past weeks, voters in this constituency must have been overwhelmed by wave after wave of publicity by the candidates and their respective election campaign teams. Understandably, every legislator-hopeful claims they have the right recipe for the special administrative region’s various problems — from housing to job security to public transportation. Ideas vary and some are even in conflict with each other. In face of candidates from vastly different backgrounds and contrasting platforms, how do we identify who is the one who would really make the right choices for Hong Kong?

We can do that by using the process of elimination. Those who do not uphold the core values of Hong Kong residents or have their best interests in mind should be crossed out from the list.

One of the touchstones is the issue of reclamation. The proposal put forward by the SAR government to reclaim 1,700 hectares of land from the sea east of Lantau Island, which is expected to provide homes for 1.1 million people, is key to resolving the land and housing supply shortage. By any account — financially, legally, historically — this is the best and most daring idea put forward to resolve one of the deepseated problems haunting the city for decades. Any candidate who for whatever reason tries to convince voters this is not the best option should not sit in our legislature to decide what is best for Hong Kong.

The economy usually ranks first among the concerns of voters, and elections in Hong Kong are by no means exception. Suffering from a narrowing economic base, Hong Kong has seen its economic development faltering in face of acute competition from mainland cities as the country’s economy advanced in leaps and bounds since launching the reform and opening-up process.

As many economists have pointed out, Hong Kong’s hope lies in integration into the national development strategy while maintaining “one country, two systems”. Any candidate who suggests otherwise, especially those who reject and query everything from the mainland, should not be your choice.

With lawmaking and fund appropriation as its main functions, the Legislative Council is vested with considerable power, and its members must therefore have very clean records to make sure they would exercise their power with absolute honesty and according to the law. If there is any candidate who are suspected to have received secret donations or attempted to provoke other people into doing something illegal, he or she should be kept out of our legislature.

The Legislative Council is part of the establishment of the Hong Kong SAR, which enjoys a high degree of autonomy within the People’s Republic of China. Any candidate who holds no respect for the national Constitution and the Basic Law and believe intervention by foreign forces in the SAR’s internal affairs should be invited in order to make things here happen the way they prefer, he or she is not your candidate.

In short, those who put their own interests before the interests of Hong Kong, those who focus on political wrangling rather than people’s livelihoods, those whose honesty and integrity is in doubt, those who keep stirring up trouble in society and those who are non-solution-oriented should not be your pick.

When you cast your ballot this Sunday, you may want to bear this in mind.