The international and local media are all reporting that Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp will likely lose seats in today's district council election.
Will that indeed happen? My students are on the case today and tonight. Watch our Hong Kong Stories website for the latest developments plus in-depth analysis and feature stories about how the district councils work, voter concerns, campaign tactics and hot races. Not sure what the district councils do and what the elections are about? See our FAQ. I have also started a blog page to monitor what other media and blogs are staying. Balloting started at 7:30am this morning and ends at 10:30. We're expecting preliminary results around 2am.
Naturally there is a lot more blow-by-blow coverage on Chinese-language news sites such as the Ming Pao and the Oriental Daily than in the Standard (free) and SCMP (paid subscription only, boo hiss!).
Today he posted the translation of a very interesting blog post by Jasper Tsang Yok-sing titled: Democracy In Need of Emergency Help. Tsang slams the democratic camp for their failure to gain greater popular support, accusing them of false democracy:
In 2003, the DAB was defeated badly but they never criticized the citizens. In 2000, the Democratic Party lost many votes in the Legislative Council and publicly blamed the voters. So who are the real "democrats" here?
"Democracy needs emergency help"? This is a risible slogan. In an open, fair and just election, it is a victory for democracy no matter who wins. It is a basic concept in the believe of the people and democracy. The people who need emergency cannot be democrats, for they can only be those people who wave the flag of "democracy" but are unwilling to do the practical work to gain the support of the voters.
Check out the full translation in English as well as Tsang's original in Chinese.
I am reminded of the U.S. presidential elections in 2004, when many Republicans were accusing John Kerry and the Democrats of being "limousine liberals," out of touch with the American heartland. It appears that Hong Kong's pro-democracy camp has managed to open itself up to the same accusation, with the pro-China camp having arguably done a better job at forging relationships with ordinary low-income people around Hong Kong.
Quite a number of my students' stories have quoted pro-democratic candidates complaining that the pro-China camp has better resources to reach out to the grassroots, while pro-China candidates have questioned who is more "democratic" than whom...
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