The democracy in Hong Kong is on the verge of collapse with principle opposition party, Civic Party winding up operations in the changing political landscape. In its 26-year history, Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy party has lost its relevance due to prevailing conditions.
Eversince Beijing imposed draconian national security law on Hong Kong in June 2020, things started changing for all the democratic institutions. Civic party has joined the long iist of institutions that lost their relevance in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong’s pro-democracy Civic Party is scheduled to wind up after operating in the city for 16 years, party chairman Alan Leong has said, after no members filed nominations to take up positions in the executive committee. Leong recently stated that the party received no nominations for the next executive committee and hence it was left with no choice but to take steps to disband pending a final vote in an emergency general meeting to be held in February at the earliest.
Sixteen year old party was once one of the major anti-government groups in Hong Kong. The party currently has more than 300 members, after many had quit two years ago after the National Security Law came into effect. It is scheduled to hold an annual general meeting on December 17, when the incumbent committee is expected to form a provisional executive committee. They will then call an emergency meeting to pass a resolution to wind up the Civil Party Limited and find a liquidator.
Four former Civic Party lawmakers charged under the national security law had called for the party to disband in an open letter in April last year. The letter was penned by ex-party leader Alvin Yeung, Jeremy Tam, Kwok Ka-ki and Lee Yue-shun, who are among 47 well-known political figures charged with conspiracy to commit subversion over their involvement in unofficial legislative primary elections held in July 2020.
Founded in 2006, the Civic Party has been known for representing professionals in Hong Kong, including lawyers, accountants and scholars. The party had secured seats in the Legislative Council since 2008, but four of its members – Alvin Yeung, Dennis Kwok, Kwok Ka-ki and Kenneth Leung – were ousted from the legislature in November 2020 for being “unpatriotic.” Their disqualifications triggered mass resignations by opposition legislators, leaving the legislature with mostly Beijing loyalists.
Meanwhile, reports in Chinese media suggested that the Civic Party has been left with no choice but to dissolve itself. Observers noted that the Civic Party’s dissolution became inevitable after a series of its moves over the years intended to disrupt Hong Kong. Its dissolution meant disruptive forces were no longer welcomed by Hongkongers.
Ironically, China has recaliberated the definition of democracy. According to Global times editorial, in the political realm, China’s image has long been smeared as “authoritarian” and “undemocratic”, because the narrative of democracy has been monopolized by the US and the West. In the Western sense, multiple parties vying for power and governing in turn and universal suffrage are essential parts of democracy.
Instead, China has come up with its own concept and practices of democracy – the whole-process people’s democracy – a term Xi brought up in 2019 during his visit to a civic center in Shanghai where legislation was being discussed at the local community level. The whole-process people’s democracy is a combination of electoral democracy and consultative democracy, and is applied through a combination of elections, consultations, decision-making, management and oversight, according to a white paper issued in December 2021 on the concept.
In the opening session of the 20th CPC National Congress , Xi said that whole-process people’s democracy is the defining feature of socialist democracy; it is democracy in its broadest, most genuine, and most effective form.”We will improve the system of institutions through which the people run the country,” said Xi.”This country is its people; the people are the country,” Xi noted.The people-centered ideal that the CPC embraces has its roots in traditional Chinese culture and the governance philosophy of Confucianism, while its connotation and relevant practices are suited to contemporary China, analysts said.
Opposition parties have been reeling from the national security law imposed by Beijing in June 2020. Five months later, the Democratic Party’s six lawmakers had resigned, along with other opposition members, to protest a decision by China’s top legislative body to disqualify four of their allies.Soon after came a wave of resignations by its district councillors, ahead of new oath-taking rules set by the security law that might have required them to repay wages if they were unseated for being “unpatriotic”.
Given the circumstances, it seems imminent that democracy is on the verge of collapse in Hong Kong.
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