Are the opposition wise enough to appreciate Bismarck’s insight?

The pro-establishment legislators’ latest move to plug the loopholes in the Legislative Council’s House Rules, which have been relentlessly exploited by the opposition in their filibustering stunts — increasingly commonplace over recent years as polarization of society intensified — could herald the end of destructive politics in the legislature.

Such destructive politics, or “burn together” tactics, peaked when opposition LegCo members obstructed the election of the House Committee’s new chairperson for half a year after messing up 16 committee meetings designated for this routine procedure.

The move to restore order to the legislature came against the backdrop of most Hong Kong people, including a big portion of political radicals, realizing, after witnessing the unraveling and consequences of “Occupy Central” in 2014 and “Black Revolution” last year, that adversarial politics will lead Hong Kong nowhere but a political dead end and economic hardship. To put it simply, reason and sobriety are returning to the city, and radicalism is less marketable.

The move came as opposition politicians are confronted by an unpalatable reality: The external pressure, or external interference including sanctions, that they have been eagerly counting on to advance their political agenda has failed them miserably.

There is little room for the external forces to maneuver regarding which path Hong Kong should take to further advance its socioeconomic and political development. The reason is obvious: It has returned to, and is now a special administrative region of, China — not an enclave dominated by foreign forces anymore.

Distasteful as might be for the opposition politicians, it is time for them to be honest and accept that the tactic of counting on external interference was a miscalculation. It achieved the opposite. Their miscalculation has literally given birth to the National Security Law for Hong Kong, which they abhor.

With the promulgation of the National Security Law, there is little room for destructive adversarial politics to continue in Hong Kong. Those who are hellbent on adversarial politics have no future. The only way for opposition politicians to remain relevant and significant to Hong Kong’s socioeconomic and political development is to play the role of loyal opposition, with the tactic of installing a system of constructive checks and balances.

“Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable — the art of the next best,” Otto von Bismarck said in 1867. More than one-and-a-half centuries have lapsed since then; have opposition politicians gained enough wisdom to appreciate Bismarck’s insight?