Sing Tao Daily

On the third day of the Lunar New Year, I would like to first send my New Year greetings to all readers and wish you all peace and prosperity in the Year of the Tiger. The tiger is majestic and full of vitality. It has multiple images and meanings and is deeply rooted in our culture. The domineering and powerful ones are the dragons and tigers, the majestic and dangerous ones are the dragons and the tigers, the dangers are the dragon pools and the tiger dens, and the extraordinary strength is the crouching tiger, hidden dragon. The nomination period for the chief executive election will begin at the end of the month, and the five-year battle between dragons and tigers is about to take place. Today, we will take advantage of the festive atmosphere to talk about the inspiration and expectations of the Year of the Tiger for the next chief executive.

Early last month, the United States held a democracy summit, using Taiwan and Hong Kong people to use democracy as a guise to intensify ideological confrontation between China and the West. The State Council Information Office has published two white papers, "Democracy in China" and "Democracy Development in Hong Kong under "One Country, Two Systems"", explaining the concept of "whole-process people's democracy", and reiterated the silence of the "Sino-British Joint Declaration" on universal suffrage, seeking to win over the world The right to speak of "democracy". From the perspective of the international context, the election of the Hong Kong Legislative Council has been settled, and the new term has been sworn in. It is also a piece of the jigsaw puzzle for Sino-US relations. When democracy develops into a diplomatic arena, the practice of the new electoral system in Hong Kong will inevitably add strategic significance to competition between great powers.

After the approval by the Qualifications Review Committee, candidates for the Legislative Council have officially entered the election process. The focus of the media turned to the turnout, which was estimated to be only 20% to 30%. There are reasons for the cold atmosphere in this election, which is an unavoidable fact. The opposition factions were imprisoned, exiled, and DQed, and the survivors boycotted the election, thus lacking political party mobilization; the non-establishment factions took advantage of the momentum, but it took time to cultivate new political stars, and failed to use star power to attract public attention; the establishment factions were at their mercy, and even before the competition He didn't do anything during the warm-up either.

The nomination period for the new Legislative Council begins at the end of the month. The pro-democracy camp has been turbulent for many months. It is a foregone conclusion that the Democratic Party will not participate in the election. The Civic Party's path to politics has long been over. Only the traditional pan-democratic People's Political Consultative Conference has yet to express its position. The democratic movement in Hong Kong has only lasted for a few decades. It is very sad to see traditional political parties going from fighting for seats to boycotting elections, getting further and further away from the goal of democracy.

The election committee nomination period for voting on the chief executive and 40 members of the Legislative Council has ended, and there is still the final hurdle of the qualifications review to prevent "pseudo-patriots" from intruding. This is the first election after the "improving of the electoral system". All walks of life are preparing for it. I believe there is no doubt about the patriotism of the candidates. The only surprise is that many people from the professional sector waited until the last day to submit their applications. For the sectors that were thought to have been successfully coordinated, the final number of candidates was exactly one or two more than the number of seats. About one-third of the total sectors need to be determined in the September election. Win or lose.

The patriotic combination of fists for elections at all levels was rapid and rapid, and the first punch they threw at the district council was unexpected. The government took the lead in proposing an amendment to require district councilors to swear an oath of allegiance. Since then, rumors about the DQ red line have spread, initially targeting only the signatories of "No Regrets", but later including candidates participating in the democratic primaries, and then the district councilors who lent their offices as primary voting stations, and finally caused disaster. and the protestors displaying the slogan "Light Time". A sporadic number of MPs fled and were dismissed. It was not until rumors that those who broke the oath would be required to pay back their salaries that mass resignations were triggered. At this moment, the government has not yet shown its sword. After all, if you resign before taking the oath of oath, will you be able to pocket your salary safely during your term? Chief Executive's answer: There is no humane treatment, only legal treatment.