Political situation
Written by: Lin Jian
2021-03-23 07:00
Last update date: 2021-03-23 07:00
For Di Zhiyuan, it seems that everyone is an object of communication-from radical democrats, to peace and justice, to the SAR and the central government. He is also willing to talk. Recently, his opinions have been "straight through the heavens." .
But whether there is a market for the moderate route behind Di Zhiyuan is still a mystery.
The National People's Congress passed the decision to "improve Hong Kong's electoral system" earlier. The Election Committee and the Legislative Council will be reorganized, and the latter will join the Election Committee seats. In addition, a qualification review committee will be established to review the qualifications of candidates.
The drastic decline in the democratic elements of the political system is unacceptable to the democrats. Whether or not they can participate in elections in the future will be a problem. Some people even describe the democrats as having no qualifications to be consulted.
But at the same time, Di Zhiyuan, a former member of the Democratic Party and chairman of New Thinking, was invited to participate in seminars held in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, and Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, listened to his opinions in person.
Di Zhiyuan also told the media recently that he plans to form a new political party and does not rule out running for the election again.
In an interview with "Hong Kong 01", Di Zhiyuan mentioned that in the future, he will continue to participate in politics and deliberation with a pragmatic and rational attitude, hoping that more different voices can participate in the elections in the future.
He stated that he would still regard himself as a democrat, maintain his position on important democratic principles, and do not want to be labeled as a so-called "loyal opposition."
Di Zhiyuan admitted that with the current hatred of the two camps still deep, the middle-moderate line is not easy to follow, and his own electorate base is not enough, but he believes that after the strong political turmoil, most of the democratic supporters will eventually return. Moderate and rational, in the future, we will strive to win the support of this group of voters, who account for more than 30% of the total.
The new party is similar to the “unradicalized Democratic Party” 4 “quasi-members” initially expressed interest in running for the election
Di Zhiyuan represented New Thinking in the 2016 Legislative Council election in the Kowloon West direct election. The list was defeated by only 13,461 votes, accounting for about 5% of the total valid votes.
He emphasized that willingness to communicate with anyone has always been a proposition of new thinking, and he himself did not appear in recent days. The new political party to be formed as mentioned earlier is similar to a "non-radicalized Democratic Party", which is still present. In the preparatory stage, about 4 "prospective party members" were temporarily found to express their initial interest in running for the election. Their names cannot be disclosed for the time being. In short, they will not be "opportunists."
Di Zhiyuan pointed out that the political environment has been polarized in the past few years, and everything needs to be changed. This situation needs to be changed. He hopes to promote social progress through solid parliamentary work, pragmatic discussion of politics, and promotion of cross-party cooperation.
In general, there are four things he hopes to cooperate with new party members: 1. Make up your mind; 2. Have the same political ideas; 3. Make friends from different political factions; 4. Build an organized system.
Will still call itself a "democratic faction" to commemorate June 4th, and the principle of double universal suffrage will remain unchanged
Talking about his political position, Di Zhiyuan said that despite his moderate stance, there are still some bottom-line principles that must be adhered to. For example, politically insisting on commemorating the history of June 4th; supporting the "bagging first" of the political reform under the 8.31 framework as a transitional one. In the future, it will move towards double universal suffrage with greater democratic elements.
In terms of people's livelihood policy, give priority to the welfare of the middle and lower classes.
From these perspectives, he would still consider himself a "democrat."
Di Zhiyuan said that he had directly raised Hong Kong people's concerns about election reform to Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office.
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Said that he once advised Xia Baolong on the electoral reform and was praised by the participating establishments as "brave"
Despite this, Di Zhiyuan stated that he did not want to be labelled as the so-called "loyal opposition", thinking that such labels were meaningless.
He said that he has always loved the country and Hong Kong. He believes that the vast majority of Hong Kong people, including the pan-democrats, are the same. However, the "loyal opposition" has been labeled "negative" by some people in recent years: "It seems that when you say you are a "loyal opposition" ", they will be accused of not being radical enough, that is, "running dogs", "selling Hong Kong", "surrendering to Beijing", "organizational B team" and so on." He said that he would not deliberately mind who he was. In short, he hoped to be in the future. Become a person in the political world who "will say something that is unacceptable."
He also revealed that when Xia Baolong attended the symposium in Shenzhen earlier, during his speech, some Hong Kong people expressed their worries about the electoral reform, and some of the establishment parties who attended the meeting privately praised him for being "brave."
Di Zhiyuan pointed out that in the future, because the opposition will only occupy a very small minority in the parliament and it will be difficult for the rules of procedure to be changed, the parliament will not be able to perform its function of monitoring the government and promoting democracy.
"Democrats have always been a minority in the past, and they have always fought for democracy in the cracks, but we will never say that the democrats have done nothing. The road to democracy has always been one inch by inch. The political situation is limited, whether it is representative or not. Is there no room to play?" He believes that although the democratic elements of the new electoral system have indeed decreased, all those who support democracy need to continue to do so, and cause social repercussions through continuous voices. "As long as everyone is willing to re-determine strategically, There is definitely a way out."
He can only show respect to friends who are discouraged and decide to withdraw from the system, but at the same time he feels a pity.
▼Zhang Xiaoming, Deputy Director of the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office ▼
I don’t think I’ve "turned over in politics" and aimed at "30% of the voters"
At the beginning of this year, the pro-democracy party was conducting a large-scale raid in the 35+ primary elections. The pro-democracy party was almost "annihilated", and all people in the spectrum were affected. In addition, the spectrum of people from all walks of life who were invited to provide opinions during the election reform in Beijing The public seems to have imagined a picture of the future political landscape: the traditional pan-democratic parties, including the Democratic Party, the Civic Party, and the Labor Party, have probably been abandoned from the system. Even if they have the opportunity to run for elections, they are only a very small minority; According to Fan Xu Litai, a member of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, they did not even have the qualifications to be consulted.
As one of the people being consulted, whether or not he accepts the term "loyal opposition", some people objectively believe that he has become a "new democrat" that "recognizes the opposition by the system" and replaces the original pan-democratic function. .
One cannot help asking: Di Zhiyuan withdrew from the Democratic Party as early as 2015. Afterwards, he established a new mindset and advertised a middle line. He has long been far away from the democratic circle, and he has not won high votes in direct elections.
Even if you can run for the election, even if there are no other pro-democracy rivals, will you be able to absorb the votes of the original pan-democratic supporters?
Di Zhiyuan reiterated that he does not want the traditional pan-democratic party to be unable to stand in elections in the future. It is ideal that the parliament has multiple voices.
He admitted that with his past only 5% of votes and popularity based on the new thinking, the future will not be easy.
"Primary elections and electoral reforms are'political means.' To put some political stances in prison and remove them from the system. It is ugly to say that they are'annihilated', but doing so does not mean that the people will change their minds. Even if the pan-democrats cannot participate. Election does not mean that they will support me. They may not vote for anyone.” Because of this, Di Zhiyuan would not think that his current situation is a "political transformation." There is still a long way to go before he has to win enough support. He described it as "playing lightly", and as much support can be won: "The most important thing is to maintain political convictions, and the seats are second. Party consultations, reaching consensus, and speaking out as much as possible, I think to this day It’s the right thing and I will continue to do it.”
In terms of potential sources of votes, Di Zhiyuan referred to the last Legislative Council and District Council elections. Currently, supporters of the pro-democracy camp accounted for about 55% to 60% of the total voters. Looking at the 2016 Legislative Council elections, at that time, "He Li "Fei" candidates accounted for more than 30% of the votes. In 2019, stimulated by the turmoil of the amendments, the overall public sentiment changed, and some "helifei" began to support the radicals.
However, he believes that with the continuous political turmoil and Beijing's rectification of Hong Kong's political structure, this group of voters will eventually return to moderate and rational, and they will be the target of his and future potential party members to strive for support.
"They (the voters) will not automatically become moderate, but everyone understands that the space for radicalization is very narrow, and it is difficult to elect representatives of radicals. I will try my best to convince the public to support them with practical policies and deliberation. The time is very short. , But it’s not an absolute limitation.”
The anti-amendment incident caused serious tears between different political camps.
The 8.31 Prince Station case was one of the landmark events.
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Political and cultural opposition denounces official participation
Di Zhiyuan's core political philosophy is "communication."
However, in the past ten years, Hong Kong’s politics have been severely torn apart. It is not only the radicalization of the democrats, but also the establishment of the establishment.
Especially after 2012, starting from the "mass fighting against the masses" of non-governmental peripheral organizations, some people in society advocated the strongest means to deal with the democrats, and use confrontation and hatred instead of communication. This phenomenon has even spread to individual legislatures in recent years. Members of parliament, some of the main establishment political parties.
After the democrats were purged and suppressed, there have been recent rumors that this political "purge" is far from reaching the end, and the trend of "purge the left rather than the right" is very popular, and light blue people, business people, and public officials are all facing great danger.
Di Zhiyuan is still standing up in this political situation. Will he be worried?
Di Zhiyuan said that whether it is DQ or changing the electoral model, even if Beijing fully takes over the Hong Kong parliament, it will not be able to solve the core problems faced by Hong Kong, such as inefficient government administration and separation from the ground.
The most critical point is that the government must reconcile social conflicts, truly understand the sentiments of the people, and coordinate different political parties. He also pointed out that Hong Kong's political culture has become confrontational in the past period of time. The Hong Kong government has an inescapable responsibility, and even officials themselves have participated in it.
"In the past (officials) were able to make sense, but now they don’t even need to be rational. If you scold me, I will scold you back. It’s a verbal abuse.”
I don’t believe that all dissents will be overthrown, and the world will be peaceful. "Hong Kong is not that easy to manage."
On the contrary, Di Zhiyuan does not believe that if all dissidents are defeated, Hong Kong will be peaceful. In the past few years, the political environment has been dominated by struggle, and no one is the winner in the end.
"Panmin is not a winner, Lam Cheng is not a winner, and the Central Government is not a winner. The establishment seems to have won, but the recognition in society is low. On the surface, the Central Government is firmly in control of Hong Kong, but the Hong Kong people treat you. People’s trust is reduced, and after desperate to take action, foreign countries will attack you again.” He believes that Hong Kong is not such an easy place to manage. Only those who win the hearts of the people can win the world.
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Di Zhiyuan Democrats
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