“Supporting the National People’s Congress’s (NPC) Decision to Improve the Electoral System.” The name itself is very bizarre.

Since when does a decision of the NPC need our “support”?

Can you imagine the ordinary folks in a Chinese costume drama initiating a “we support the plan of Qin Shi Huang’s requisition of hard labor to build the Great Wall”? Or the Beijing residents of the late Qing dynasty starting a “the whole Beijing city support the imperial court to declare war on the Eight-Nation Alliance” movement?

One can only obey, accept and enforce an imperial decree. That’s it. The authority of an imperial decree comes from the emperor, not from the “support” of you peasants. Anyway, have we got the right not to support the decree from the emperor? The decision of the NPC is final. All Hong Kong, a small “special administrative region,” has to do is enforce it. No one would ask whether you “support or not” because Hong Kong does not have a choice.

Setting up a “supporting blah blah,” as if the NPC needs Hongkongers to authorize and endorse its decision, is like putting the cart before the horse.

These “waste-of-space” have made so much noise organizing a petition to support the NPC but only managed to collect 2.38 million signatures. Are they serious? There were two million (plus one) citizens going onto the street for the anti-ELAB demonstration, and they got only a mere 2.38 million when all people had to do was to pick up a pen to sign their name? Does it mean the NPC’s decision has as much support as the Hong Kong society, or can we say those five million people who did not sign mean they do not support the decision of the NPC? These “waste-of-space” really are “loyal garbage.” They can’t even organize a successful petition.

Look at the motherland. No one was stupid enough to collect signatures on the street to support Chairman Xi’s introduction of the One Belt One Road initiative or the great revival or rejuvenation of the Chinese nation because everyone in the whole country would, without a doubt, support the Party’s decision. Once you initiate a petition, it gives people a reason to wonder whether the proposal is “supported by the whole nation” or not.

Besides, these “waste-of-space” support the NPC’s decision to improve Hong Kong’s electoral system nowadays, but why did they not warn anyone before suffering the devastating defeat and their power being “robbed” by the pan-democrats? Why did they squander the money of “grandpa” (Beijing) to participate in every unfair election? Are they dumb, or have they got hidden agenda? They only acted “we always knew the electoral system is problematic!” because “grandpa” decided to intervene. How embarrassing! Patriotic talents! Please hurry up and replace this pile of “loyal garbage” soon.

(Tsang Chi-ho, columnist)

Click here for Chinese version

We invite you to join the conversation by submitting columns to our opinion section: [email protected]

Apple Daily reserves the right to refuse, abridge, alter or edit guest opinion columns for accuracy, length, clarity, and style, and the right to withdraw and withhold columns based on the discretion of our editorial page editors.

The opinions of the writers do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editorial board.

---------------------------------

Apple Daily’s all-new English Edition is now available on the mobile app: bit.ly/2yMMfQE

To download the latest version,

iOS: bit.ly/AD_iOS

Android: bit.ly/AD_android

Or search Appledaily in App Store or Google Play