The pro-democracy front has been a major letdown. The current deteriorating political climate warrants swift and strategic responses from the opposition. However, instead of focusing on the burning issues, anti-establishment leaders are squandering their time in internal bickering.

The Government has invited all outgoing Legislative Councillors to stay put for at least another year, after the September 6 elections were abruptly cancelled under the pretext of the coronavirus outbreak. To the amusement of their rivals, the pro-democracy camp has been dragging their feet about whether they should oblige.

To cover their backs, the Democratic Party, the Civic Party and a handful of their allies decided to let the public decide. They have engaged two research teams to work in tandem to gauge their supporters' preferences. The pollsters are supposed to single out those who identify themselves as pro-democracy from among the expected 2,400 respondents. The pan-democrats will stay in the council only if over half of their sampled followers say so. The results are scheduled to be unveiled next Wednesday.

So far, only Raymond Chan Chi-chuen of People’s Power has made up his own mind. He notified Legco President Andrew Leung Kwan-yuen as early as three weeks ago that he would not serve out a term lengthened by Beijing. He has taken the moral high ground, insisting not to become complicit to what he denounced as a breach of the Basic Law. Councillor Eddie Chu Hoi-dick of New Territories West is also in favour of boycotting the extended Legco.

The authorities have deferred the Legco ballot exercise in an apparent move to avert a likely landslide victory for the pro-democracy camp in the direct elections. The Standing Committee of the Chinese National People’s Congress subsequently by-passed the Basic Law to extend Legco’s term of office without any public consultation. Many young netizens consider it a betrayal of their fundamental principles for the councillors to linger in the lawmaking body under such circumstances. This has exerted considerable pressure on the rest of the pro-democracy legislators who would otherwise have opted to keep their collective role as a minority opposition in the assembly.

According to an earlier poll carried out by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute, 61% of the pro-democracy sympathizers wanted their councillors to leave. Only a meager 19% preferred them to stay. Should such sentiments persist into the current opinion survey, the pro-democracy camp would have to give up their seats for the next legislative year.

Meanwhile, the Legco Finance Committee is scheduled to reconvene this Friday to vet four COVID-19 related funding proposals, including a new commitment of $8,441.3 million for the Department of Health to procure and administer vaccines against the epidemic. These topics are of grave public concern. Nevertheless, Legco is set to resume its business with or without the pan-democrats.

This scenario is a far cry from the pan-democrats' original optimistic game plan to secure at least 33, if not a simple majority, of the 70 seats up for grabs. A withdrawal now will result in reduced media exposure, less access to official information, and more importantly, loss of a major source of income.

A Legco member’s monthly salary is $101,000. On top of that, there is a 15% gratuity. Other reimbursements cover medical expenses, entertainment and traveling, communications set-ups as well as operating and winding-up of offices. This add up to a total package of over $110 million in a year for the 23 pro-democracy lawmakers. The amount could help sustain the political aides and their ward offices.

Without the money, the pro-democracy political machine might have to be scaled down in the run-up to the next elections. The government has yet to announce when to make up for the Legco polls. The earliest possible date is September 5 next year. That will probably be the last shot for the pro-democracy camp to attempt a majority in Legco, before more restrictive electoral rules are introduced to prevent that from happening.

The pro-democracy lobby will need to muster all available resources just to keep that dream afloat. A self-imposed pull-out from the legislature at this critical juncture is simply not a way to do it.

(Andy Ho is a public affairs consultant. A former political editor of the South China Morning Post, he served as Information Coordinator at the Chief Executive’s Office of the HKSAR Government from 2006 to 2012)

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