Resources to nurture new politicians favour the pro-establishment camp
Reporter: Caleb Ho and Nicole Chan
Roy Kwong Chun-yu sits in a small cramped office that he shares with his two assistants on the ground floor of a residential block in a public housing estate in Yuen Long. There is nothing fancy about his surroundings, but Kwong is happy to be serving in his second term as a Democratic Party district councillor.
Kwong hit the headlines in 2007 as a 24-year-old who beat the incumbent from the pro-Beijing Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) in the safe DAB seat of Pek Long. It was a David and Goliath story; the hip-hop dancing kid from the block versus the old-timer with the vast party machinery behind him.
Now as then, Kwong says he does not receive much assistance from his party. For instance, he writes and designs a local newspaper for his constituents which he then prints and delivers himself. But he insists the lack of resources should not be an obstacle.
“You can only sigh that you don’t have a rich father,” says Kwong. “But I believe many great people in the world were born in grass-roots families. I feel that the more grass-roots a place is, the more likely it is to produce a new leader.”
The pro-business Liberal Party once offered Kwong a higher salary to work for them but he turned it down.
“It’s easy to tell whether you are working for a belief or for money. A politician needs to have backbone. You can’t switch sides for money. I would rather strive harder, have a smaller office, be poorer than give up on my aspirations,” Kwong says.
For the boy who grew up on the estate he now serves, Kwong’s story has been a successful one so far.
But pursuing politics as a career remains an uncertain and risky prospect for young people. Compared with established democracies, elected career politicians is a relatively new phenomenon in Hong Kong.
Parties across the political spectrum in Hong Kong recognise the need to nurture new political talent. However, they have had varying degrees of success and enjoy vastly different resources with which to do so.
It is hard to get information or monitor the income and wealth of political parties in Hong Kong because there is no law on political donations. But pro-Beijing and pro-business parties are understood to enjoy an advantage over their pan-democratic rivals in terms of resources.
Inside a plush conference room in the comfortable headquarters of the DAB, 28-year-old Michael Lee Kwan-keung shows off his graduation certificate and tells reporters about his experiences as a student on Hong Kong’s first diploma course for politics “professionals”.
The course was launched by the DAB in 2010 and the classes offered included, Hong Kong politics, media and politics, heritage and cultural policy and the politics and history of the DAB.
Although he had always been interested in politics, Lee, a business information technology professional, says he was not a DAB supporter before the course. After getting his diploma in a graduation ceremony attended by Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah, Lee joined the DAB and became a branch committee member in Island South.
Lee says he has no immediate plans to run for office, but should he want to, he can count on comprehensive support from his party.
Like many other parties, the DAB has a youth section, Young DAB. It also has a training committee to nurture politicians in the party. Fung Pui-cheung, the chairman of the training committee, is responsible for the curriculum design and coordination of the diploma course.
Fung says the course is aimed not just at DAB members, but also outsiders in a bid to recruit new talent and attract more gifted people to get involved in politics. The first course was so successful – more than 100 people, mainly in their 20s and 30s, applied for 30 places – that a second one is being offered this year.
Ten graduates from the first course joined the DAB and Fung says the party will continue to offer them training, which would be tailor-made, based on their needs. Some of this training takes place on the mainland at central-government run institutions like the China Executive Leadership Academy Pudong and Chinese Academy of Governance.
Apart from training, the DAB can provide rookie politicians with social networks, human resources and other support. If a DAB candidate loses in a district council election he can apply for a job at one of the party’s 18 branch offices or work as an assistant to a councillor and wait to fight again in another four years.
Fung says the party does not give up on its candidates and cites the example of Chung Kong-mo, a district councillor for Yau Tsim Mong. Chung lost twice but was lucky the third time. Apart from luck, he had the party’s full backing in what Fung calls his “eight-year war of resistance”.
Edward Lau Kwok-fan, another member of the DAB training committee, says: “[We can] help young people become district councillors through the party effect and our support. We can build a good platform for them on which they can develop well.”
Pan-democratic parties cannot promise such robust material support. Philip Tsang Kin-fung, the chairman of the Young Civics and one of the founding members of the Civic Party, admits the lack of resources in his party makes it difficult to give such comprehensive support to young members. But he believes this has its own advantages.
“It is not bad to have a comprehensive training, but you will probably become passive when everything is given. But when you have to do everything yourself, including hanging up your own election banners, then that is a very good kind of training,” Tsang says.
What the Civic Party can offer younger members is the chance to join activities like protests and petitions, and also to share their views during discussions about different government policies and social issues.
“If you choose to be a pan-democrat, you have to have ideals. You are not pursuing a career but a vision,” Tsang says.
When pan-democratic candidates lose in District Council elections, their parties cannot afford to give them paid party jobs. They need to find work and continue their political and community work without pay.
It is not just pan-democrats who face challenges when it comes to resources. The one-year-old New People’s Party, headed by former Secretary for Security Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee is a pro-establishment party that lacks the wealth of the DAB.
“Resources can be classified into money and human resources. I can’t say we have too much money but sometimes you don’t need that much money for frontline work. However, human resources are very important,” says Marcus Tse Tsz-kei, who burst onto the political scene when he won a District Council seat in Tai Koo Shing East last year.
Tse, who was 29 when he won this seat, says Ip’s fame and network were crucial to his success. “Ip’s popularity is important to new politicians. No matter how bright I am, others would not know.”
The party does not offer any training programmes but Ip’s connections open doors for Tse to speak with senior government officials. They have also helped other young party members to attend courses at institutions like the Chinese Academy of Governance.
Studying at elite national academies seems to be the privilege of those in the pro-Beijing camp, but it is not all doom and gloom for the pan-democrats.
Ma Ngok, a political commentator and an associate professor of Government and Public Administration at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, says money is important in politics but it is not the only factor.
“An effective system and well-developed framework [in a party] can all be attributed to money at the most basic level,” Ma says.
There is a smoother road to success in the pro-Beijing camp, but there is also a constraint. “They have resources and better support. But they have less freedom of speech,” says Ma. “Their politicians cannot be critical of the government.”
Ma says the crux of the problem in Hong Kong politics is the lack of opportunities for promotion. It is difficult to sustain young people’s participation in representative politics as the number of seats in the District Council and Legislative Council is limited.
In the district offices of some political parties, there are no senior paid positions to which young people could be promoted.
Regardless of their political persuasion, young politicians need opportunities.
For now, Roy Kwong Chun-yu is content to represent the people of Pek Long at the Yuen Long District Council but ultimately, he has his sights set on the Legislative Council. He hopes the voters and his party will give him the chance.
“I would emphasise a new term, the politics of hope,” says Kwong. “The politics of hope means the senior politicians are willing to place hope in the hands of new people. We are able, but you must give us the opportunity.”
