Chan’s victory is a triumph of reason
Pro-establishment candidate Rebecca Chan Hoi-yan emerged as a victor in the just-concluded Legislative Council by-election for Kowloon West geographical constituency, which was meant to refill one of the six seats vacated after the disqualification of legislators who violated the Basic Law and local laws during the swearing-in ceremony in October 2016.
The opposition camp has lost not only the by-election but also their hope of regaining veto power in the LegCo. As such, Chan’s victory came as great news to all those who wish Hong Kong well. It reflects the determination of not only the Kowloon West voters but also society at large to prevent those who tend to disgrace our legislature and put their personal or political camp’s interests before those of the special administrative region from entering our lawmaking body.
Chan’s win, though not surprising, was against the odds. Once a journalist and previously serving as political assistant to former secretary for food and health Ko Wing-man, Chan had no experience in elections. Thanks to her practical political platform, the hard work of her campaign team and the unity of constructive forces behind her, she earned 13,410 more votes than her main rival, Lee Cheukyan, an old political hand from Labour Party; while the other opposition candidate, Frederick Fung Kin-kee, also a veteran politician who had won many elections in Kowloon West’s Sham Shui Po, lagged much further behind.
That Chan garnered more votes than the combined total of the two opposition candidates refutes the opposition’s excuse that their failure this time was due to the splitting of votes between the pair - an argument they had been making even before polling day.
Pro-establishment candidates used to suffer disadvantages in one-on-one election contest with opposition candidates. But not anymore. The curse of the socalled “6:4 golden rule” was first broken in March when Vincent Cheng Wing-shun defeated the opposition’s candidate Edward Yiu Chung-yim. In less than nine months, opposition candidates suffered a second rout. “Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence.” But it is fair to say the opposition candidates’ defeats this time and last time were by no means an “accident” or a “coincidence”.
Their successive defeats have marked the triumph of rationality in Hong Kong society. Voters in LegCo elections have come to realize it is crucial to pick people who they trust and who would at least respect the laws they make, or else they will not be able to uphold the rule of law, which is the cornerstone of Hong Kong’s success. They have recognized the significance of putting in such key positions people who would enact laws and appropriate funds essential for the city to move forward instead of wasting time and energy with political wrangling. That is all the more necessary now that the SAR and the country are facing great uncertainties due to a volatile international situation.
Livelihood issues rather than politics were what most people had in mind when they came to vote on Sunday. This should also be the guiding principle for all the elections to come.