Hong Kong’s lawmakers must connect with the people who voted them in

As the cheers for the winners and mourning for the losers grow faint after the Legislative Council election, it is appropriate that those who made it to their august new high office should now re-examine the way forward outside the clamour of electioneering hoopla.

Among the high-profile tripartite factions of localists, traditional democrats and those in the pro-establishment camp, the localists have managed to squeeze out quite a few veteran fellow-travellers, decimating the traditional democrats to just 35 per cent of the total. But they had little success in fighting the pro-establishment camp, which maintained about 40 per cent of the total vote, as in 2012.

The localists should know better than anyone that they owe their success not just to the question of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying’s re-election for a second term, but to their promotion of localism.

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The failure of Ricky Wong Wai-kay and James Tien Pei-chun is an indication of the maturity of our electorate. Wong espoused just a single message in his campaign platform – change the chief executive in the next term, while Tien has been among the first group from the pro-establishment camp jumping on the “Anyone but CY” bandwagon.

The localists capitalised on many voters’ suspicions about mainland cross-jurisdictional interference in Hong Kong. They cleverly focused on the popular obsession with self-determination rather than getting too involved in the push for Hong Kong’s independence. This differentiation proved to be a winning strategy. By combining this with their other, more grass-roots friendly postures on economic and political issues, their campaign platforms struck a chord with many voters.

But the six newly elected localists need much more than campaign slogans and media stunts to succeed in Legco. The essence of localism must be the long-term interests of society. If they cross the thin line into support for independence, they can expect a swift backlash from those who voted them into the chamber. Their constituents would expect them to manoeuvre within the framework of Legco rules and regulations to effect change and find solutions to their everyday problems.

The veteran democrats suffered the heaviest setback, keeping only 13 geographical seats compared with 18 in 2012. Wong Yuk-man and Chan Wai-yip were dropped by the voters, while another, Leung Kwok-hung, barely made it, with a thin margin of about 1,000 votes. It is obvious that voters have had enough of their infantile and disruptive antics in the chamber, which not only obstructed the passing of some vitally important legislation, but made a mockery of one of the three branches of government.

Voters have wised up to the damage their filibustering has caused. Some of the proposed projects up for discussion but delayed in the process will inevitably cost many millions of dollars more, due to inflation, when they are eventually given the go-ahead. In the meantime, the public is being deprived of services initiated by the administration. Voters are offended seeing these radical lawmakers, who are paid more than HK$100,000 a month, doing nothing but throw tantrums, flinging posters and various symbolic objects, rather than engaging in serious debate over important issues of public concern and suggesting solutions.