“Thus, what enables the wise sovereign and the good general to strike and conquer, and achieve things beyond the reach of ordinary men, is FOREKNOWLEDGE!” -The Art of War by Sun Tzu, XIII 4

Envision our Legco without the pan-democrat legislators! What do you get? Something very similar to China’s top legislature, the Standing Committee of National People’s Congress or North Korea holding its parliamentary session, passing laws with 99% approval, without any meaningful scrutiny or real objections.

This is the question - do we Hongkongers want our Legco to be like that?

There is no question that choosing between “stay” or “leave” in Legco, the current BIG debate among the pan-democrat politicians, activists or supporters, is clearly a choice of the lesser evil. Neither is ideal. But under the current circumstances when the recently enacted National Security Law has put our freedom of expression and our freedom of the press into question, there is no doubt in my mind that information is king! I definitely want to know what I should be worrying about and what I should be resisting against. Without any pan-democrats inside Legco, we might not have the full picture of what is happening inside. After all, more often than not, a lot of the problems lie in the fine print! The government might even amend some current rules which allow public access to Legco or its proceedings. Then what? My greatest fear is not knowing what I should be afraid of!

True, these pan-democrat legislators might not be able to stop any evil laws from being implemented. But at least, they will surely speak up and raise our awareness just like what they did last year with the Extradition Law. Without the infighting inside Legco in 2019 and the public’s heightened awareness, I am almost sure that there won’t be 1 million protesters coming out in the streets on June 9, 2019!

True, if the legislators boycott the Legco en masse, some ex-legislators or activists could still point out the evilness of the laws that will be proposed. But we are talking about impact here. Our mainstream newspapers which are mostly pro-government and pro-Beijing will definitely not give these ex-legislators or activists as much coverage as they unwillingly give the pan-democrat incumbent legislators, already now biasedly limited by any standard!

Some people argue that staying in Legco would undermine the help which the Five Eyes allies (United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) are giving us and are prepared to give us. I think this is being simplistic. Surely, the international community also needs vital information to formulate their international policies. If there is a blockage of information from our government and Legco, the international community also could not do much! Remember, information is a negotiator’s greatest weapon!

A lot of people argued that the ridiculous arrest of Legislators Lam Cheuk Ting and Ted Hui Chi Fung on August 26, 2020 should prove to all the pan-democrats once and for all that a boycott en masse is the only way to go as working with our Hong Kong government is an exercise of futility beyond redemption! True enough, some “stay-leaning” legislators have already announced that they have to think again or think twice! But is it possible that our government intentionally made these arrests at this time when the pan-democrats are having its most heated and divisive debates on whether or not to stay, to instill more terror and fear so as to tip the balance for the pan-democrats to forgo the Legco altogether?

I go back to where I started. For me: the image of a Legco chamber without the pan-democrat legislators is an abandoned and deserted battlefield! Let us not help China shut down that one crucial door of information for Hongkongers and the world! Just remember that information censorship is the cornerstone of Communist China governance and you will agree with me that China will be the first to thank the pan-democrats for abandoning the Legco en masse!

(Scout So, guest contributor)

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