A Legislative Council election candidate campaigns for support in North Point, Hong Kong Island, Dec 19, 2021. (CALVIN NG/CHINA DAILY)
The election for Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Legislative Council will be held on Sunday. As the first LegCo election held after the electoral system improvement, it will have more seats, more balanced distribution among different social backgrounds, as well as a wide spectrum in the political sphere.
Yet some Western media outlets seem unhappy with it. Among them is The Diplomat, which blamed the new electoral system in Hong Kong for "having all but killed any formal political opposition".
By claiming so they turn a blind eye to the 153 candidates busy running for the 90 seats. The candidates held their own political viewpoints and differed on many issues.
The Diplomat omitted them all. Via its claim, it seems to focus on the few home-haters, who were disqualified for the election due to their disloyalty to the Hong Kong SAR or even put on the wanted list for suspicion of crime.
In past elections, radicals had the chance of getting a few voters of their kind to win a seat. Yet that neither means their radical political usurpation could represent the people's will, nor shows they truly served the people's interests. They are just radicals who made use of loopholes of the old electoral system and that's all.
These radicals had curbed, not promoted, democracy in the LegCo. To those serving the public good, they took verbal or even physical attacks. On May 8, 2020, when Starry Lee Wai-king from Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong hosted a meeting of LegCo, a group of radicals surrounded her seat and even held a chair against her. It is hard to imagine such a phenomenon could happen again.
Knowing they had little support on bills, they raised one amendment after another, gave long speeches so as to prolong the debate and prevent LegCo members from voting. They launched filibuster and blocked bills ranging from raising salary of public servants to subsidizing low-income families.
Now the improved electoral system has filled in the loopholes. The candidates compete in a fairer, more rational and orderly way, care more about people's livelihoods, and race with each other on who serves the Hong Kong people better. It brings the election back to a sound track and works for the public good.
Western media outlets can continue being selectively blind. The prosperity of Hong Kong and the improved livelihoods of its people explain quite a bit.
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