Yesterday, Legislative Council (LegCo) member Eddie Chu Hoi-dick posted on his Facebook page that he originally shared my idea before changing his mind to support the primary election and eventually participated in it. His response was that the primary election is essential regardless of whether there will be a large-scale disqualification of candidates. He further said that the best defense against disqualification is not to fear it. One of the reasons for his continual support of the primary election, he continued, is to use it to establish a consensus of opposition that fundamentally opposes the National Security Law (NSL).

If that is the plan, then the NSL must be the main topic of discussion in the primary election forum. According to Tanya Chan, convener of the pan-democratic camp, different political parties can only respond either by support or objection to the NSL under the shadow of possible disqualification. Therefore, the forum topic must revolve around whether to oppose the NSL. However, should a candidate disapprove of the NSL if it is almost certain to guarantee disqualification? If the candidate is successfully elected into the Legislative Council, under the threat of the NSL, should the candidate or its party succumb to the NSL irrespective of the rights of Hongkongers or stand up to it? Only if the primary election focuses primarily on this topic, then it will be possible to fulfill Chu’s wish: to use the primary election to build a consensus of opposition that fundamentally opposes the NSL.

Having watched two primary election debates, the topic of NSL was only gently touched upon. In fact, many candidates did not mention sensitive topics that could lead to disqualification and put them in a dilemma. Most of them mentioned how they would unite and strive to win more than 35 seats which would put them in the majority, whether parliamentary resistance will be integrated with the fights on the street, whether they would oppose next year’s budget to force the Chief Executive to step down. There are also candidates who attacked the track records of the Democratic Party and the Hong Kong Association for Democracy and People's Livelihood (ADPL). The atmosphere of the forums did not bring about a sense of urgency on the NSL’s impending threat to our freedom and security, and its imminent destruction of “One Country, Two System.” The intention to initiate a consensus of opposition against NSL seems buoyant.

At the pan-democratic primary election forum, the NSL was like an elephant in the room, so obvious but unseen by the candidates. The NSL descends upon us, yet the LegCo primary election was unaffected and indifferent as though Hong Kong is just running a peaceful election where everyone fights for a seat in the LegCo and as though those who successfully win the primary election would be guaranteed a seat. Pro-democrats did not see the elephant in the room but they saw the whimsical conspiracies of other candidates.

Before Yuen Gongyi went to the United States to lobby for the rights and interests of Hongkongers, he posted on YouTube and unexpectedly gained mass popularity. He speaks bluntly, and his goals and all action plans are disclosed candidly online. Many netizens find his messages agreeable and admire him for standing up and taking action for Hongkongers. I rather think Yuen is quite a naive optimist, nevertheless I do agree with his fundamental ideologies. He previously criticized a pan-democrat which set off a conspiracy theory attack upon him within the pan-democrat discussion circle. They merely wondered from where he suddenly emerged and, like all conspiracy theories in the past, this was also based on no evidence. It got even more peculiar in recent days, when it has been theorize that his anti-CCP speeches were means to support the campaign of his slightly more, and evidently, pro-CCP son. Though they share the same blood, even the wildest imagination would not be linking the two’s political stances. All the more so when the son stated on radio that his father is a tragedy.

To the conspiracy of her father campaigning for the son, Erica Yuen responded with a laugh, and said, “We must vote out the conservative, old pan-democrats and the successors of these old pan-democratic directions. They’re extremely scary, can’t even take a single word of criticism, never admitting faults, and forever misjudging and falling behind situations. They only know how to spin their own fallacies and point fingers at fellow teammates.”

The financial columnist, Muddy Dirty Water, wrote on his Facebook page that, “This is simple economics, because they see Daddy Yuen as a competitor who has also robbed them of many interests.” “The pan-dem mechanism has been carrying out their international work and lobbying through crowdfunding, but Daddy Yuen funded his own flights, and used his own resources to secure the more influential people in the US, such as Bannon, which is unlike a simple newspaper ad. The pan-dem mechanism naturally can’t stand it.”

Seeing no elephant but only the seats; seeing no teammates but only conspiracies – perhaps this is just some slim pickings, but again, one rotten apple can spoil the whole bunch.

(Lee Yee, a prominent political commentator in Hong Kong who embarked on a career of writing and subediting in 1956, has been contributing unremittingly political commentaries to the local press.)

Click here for Chinese version.

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