Dishonesty to cost DP dearly

The Democratic Party (DP) used to be No 1 in Hong Kong’s political arena and held more than half of the opposition seats in the Legislative Council (LegCo). Today, however, the DP reveals merely a shadow of its mighty past. After its venerable party whip passed away a few years ago and with former pillars such as Cheng Ka-foo and To Kun-shun no longer highly motivated, only Ho Chun-yan and Lau Wai-hing are left to hold the party together, and just barely.

At times like this the right thing to do is for the party elders to pass on the leadership to the younger generation, but that is obviously not happening. Beside all that the DP is also frequently ambushed by radical opposition groups like the League of Social Democrats (LSD) and People Power (PP). It is fair to say the DP is suffering internally as well as externally.

It is very hard for the opposition to wrest votes from the pro-government side in the LegCo elections, but it is absolutely possible for the DP to bite the dust this time as a result of opposition infighting led by the Civic Party and surprise attacks by the LSD and PP. To turn the situation around, the DP usually resorts to smear campaign against its rivals and/or the SAR government.

There is no limit to how far down it will go to dig up dirt, even if it’s 20-plus years old and even if not very damning. Unfortunately for the DP, others will definitely fight back the same way. Ho and fellow DP lawmaker Lee Wing-tat now find themselves roiled in scandals one after another.

The scandals leave the DP’s leading core members under fire for questioning others’ integrity while hiding their own “dirty laundry”. Their attempts at damage control have failed so far and there is much more to it than meets the eye in terms of “dirt” within the opposition camp. That proves they cannot be trusted, period.