The race is on and Hong Kong is about to show the world how democracy works. It is a unique system where everybody gets a slice of the pie. But it is a system which the pro-democracy activists and doomsday sayers fail to understand.
Yesterday nominations closed for the 2025 Legislative Council elections with 161 nominations submitted – slightly up on the previous elections – for the 90 seats in the legislature.
The representation is wide in the Hong Kong system. The man in the street gets to vote for 20 seats. With a population of 6.5 million over the voting age of 18, there are about 4 million registered electors, so about 2/3s will be able to vote. That is democracy.
Then we have the functional constituencies with 30 seats and 60 candidates. This group ensures that all the trades and professions are represented. So, members in this group effectively get two votes – one for home and one for work. With two candidates for every seat there is bound to be plenty of competition.
Another 50 hopefuls have submitted their forms to vie for the 40-strong Election Committee constituency. This is the group that elects the Chief Executive. It actually has 1,500 members – 1,000 more than the election committee that picks the US President – but only 40 can sit on the Legislature.
That gives us 90 seats in the legislature with highly qualified men and women who are willing to give up their time to work for the betterment of Hong Kong. Nothing could be more representative than this mix of people in society to speak up for the underdog, the underprivileged, for the hardworking housewife… How dare the prophets of doom and the western media say there is no democracy in Hong Kong!
The western media continue calling media mogul Jimmy Lai a pro-democracy advocate. He’s not, and it was rarely mentioned throughout his trial. He is being tried for subversion and collusion with foreign governments. But democracy sells papers.
Now the race has begun, and the clash of titans heralds a new era for Hong Kong. Hopefully, the campaigns will bring out the voters, which is difficult in any country.
The man in the street is generally apolitical; he doesn’t care about politics and has enough of his own problems. Why should he go out to vote? It is necessary to ensure that the right people are picked to be representing the public at large and to stand up for injustices.
Apathy towards elections has gotten so bad in some places that 21 countries have introduced compulsory voting, including Australia, but excluding the US, UK and most of Europe.
This is not necessary for Hong Kong. In the last Legislative Councils elections in 2021, the voter turnout for the geographic constituencies was 30.2 per cent, which is par for the course.
But this year we hope to do better. The government is bound to roll out a series of campaigns urging its citizens to vote on December 7. Already Chief Executive John Lee has been touting the boy scouts at the rally with: "I’m calling on scouts and scout leaders who are eligible voters to actively take part in the elections, fulfilling their civic and social responsibilities."
Culture, Sports and Tourism Minister Rosanna Law said she will feature in a video clip along with leading officials in her bureau to encourage the public to vote.
And Financial Secretary Paul Chan said that he has met with senior advisors to map out stronger promotional campaigns for the Legislative Council elections, adding that more than 30 departments and public bodies under the six policy bureaus must comprehensively intensify such efforts in the coming month.
However, it will be up to the candidates themselves to draw the voters out. Operation doorknock prevails and it will be up to him/herself to convince the eligible voter to vote.
A voter turnout rate higher than 30 per cent will generate profound international publicity to turn around the prophets of doom and instill newborn energy into the life of Hong Kong.
Mark Pinkstone
** 博客文章文責自負,不代表本公司立場 **
The family of Jimmy Lai are now praying for Divine Providence to intervene in the case of the jailed publisher after they visited the Holy See in the Vatican.
Lai’s wife, Teresa, and daughter, Claire, spoke with Pope Leo XIV after a general audience in St Peter’s Square at the Vatican on October 15. Vatican Media issued a picture and caption only of the meeting and made no comment on the substance of the talks. Also, no comment was made by the Pope regarding Lai’s internment.
But a “general audience” with the Pope is generally a public event every Wednesday when the pope meets and greets the flock. Lai’s son Sebastian told AsiaNews agency of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions in Milan, Italy, that it was was “one of those public events when you go up, you just shake, he just blesses you. But she (Teresa) understood that he knows the situation.”
He added: “So, meeting Pope Leo XIV and having the support of so many people, so many Catholics, is obviously immense.”
Lai — who converted to Catholicism in 1997 and who has spoken publicly about his faith on numerous occasions — was first arrested just over five years ago on charges related to conspiracy and incitement to overthrow the government. To garner support, the western media often refer to Lai as being a fighter for democracy. But democracy was rarely mentioned during his 156-day trial, instead practically all evidence referred to incitement and collusion with foreign forces to rebel against and sanction the Hong Kong administration.
The verdict is expected sometime in December/January.
But a late starter to the chorus of supports is Canada’s new Prime Minister Mark Carney who told the Globe and Mail that he supports the release of Lai on humanitarian grounds and that he believes in freedom of the press.
Press freedom is one thing but it should not be confused with abuse by the press, which we see so often these days. Carney and others draw their collective wisdom from the media which has a hidden agenda to boost readership through sensationalism. There is a journalistic adage: “don’t let the facts spoil a good story.”
Canada’s relationship with Hong Kong/China was marred in 2018 when the Canadian government unlawfully arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou, holder of a Hong Kong permanent ID and passport, at the behest of the US government. She was later released in September 2021 after extradition proceedings against her failed to materialise when she cut a deal with the US Justice Department.
Despite pressure from Lai’s supporters, it is doubtful if Canada’s Foreign Minister Anita Anand who visited China on October 16 and 17 for meetings with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi raised the Jimmy Lai case with him. However, she is also playing host to the G7 foreign ministers’ meeting next month in the Niagara Region where Lai has millions in investments, including a string of hotels and restaurants, and supporters hope she will raise the issue then.
The same applied when Carney met with President Xi at the ASEAN meeting in Malaysia last week. They had more pressing worldly matters to discuss.
Team Lai, led by son Sebastien and the highly priced public relations/lawyers Doughty Street Chambers in London, have been digging deep into the Lai fortune of some US$2.5 billion (according to Forbes), drumming up support for the release of Jimmy Lai. Their latest strategy is to emphasize his ill health.
Lai, 77, is receiving daily shots of insulin to keep his blood levels low. Although Team Lai bitterly complains to anyone who listens that he is not getting proper medical attention in jail, his local legal team representing him in court say otherwise under oath that he is getting proper treatment and is being well looked after while in self-sought solitary confinement. He is also being availed to mass and holy communion every Sunday.
The millions of dollars pouring into the “release Jimmy Lai fund” is a total waste of money as the British lawyers fully know that a person, being denied bail, cannot be released during an ongoing trial.
