PONG Yat–ming: To run for Legco is a celebration

[Alex]

To run for Legco is a celebration
PONG Yat–ming
Candidate for New Territories East Geographic Constituency in
2012 Legislative Council Election, HKSAR
Issue 265, December, 2012
http://www.hkci.org.hk/eng/newsletter/index.html

PONG Yat–ming, well known as “consumer crusader”, who found “The Movement of Boycotting the Property Tycoons” in 2010 has drawn the attention of Hong Kong society successfully. Surprisingly Yat –ming decided to run for a Legco seat in 2012 Legco Election, what made him to take such an action, what is the story behind?

You will find him is very different from the other candidates, perhaps, this is the reason he did not make it.

    I have never thought about running for the Legco, and so I have not done any preparation for it. As a person who even had no experience in running for student councils, I will say that it was also beyond my own imagination that I would have buried my head into this "heated kitchen" only three months before the polling day.

    There were two feelings that really struck my heart.

1. Concerning the debate forum for candidates and the role of legislators

In just 10 days, I attended 6 forums - 4 on the TV and 2 on the radio - and listened intensively to 18 candidates' speeches. They could have been good opportunities to get to know the visions of other candidates, yet to my astonishment, in fact they had everything but elaboration of neither visions nor exchanges. I would have been more patient if it was just one forum, but no, there were six of them, all without any communication of minds, and all one had was repetitions of questions, even in unchanged wordings. Only a few candidates had tried to reverse such a culture. Frankly, if I have to do it again, I probably would be sick.

I could not understand why candidates dared to come to the forum like that, and I also could not figure out why the public would accept such behavior. I just wondered what came first - was such a culture moulding the public expectation for the candidates, or the other way round? That is, because the public only expected legislators to function as watchers to monitor the government, and as such, all that were required from them would be their interrogative skills, their ferocity in questioning others "what have you done?" or "why haven't you done that?"

Were the voters properly informed before they vote in the ballot?

    In these forums, when I criticize and challenge other candidates, I also made my best endeavor to explicate my own views on issues like environmental protection, support to freelance workers, civil movements by citizens and grassroots organizations, etc.; and I also invited other candidates who supported such ideas to collaborate. I had supposed that Legco candidates should be like that, but in fact, in these forums which were supposed to be representative of the highest degree of democracy in Hong Kong, these fundamental requirements became fantasy and luxury.

I believe that if the public will tune up our demands for the legislators, they will have no choice but to perform differently. If we will require our legislators to show concern to long ignored social issues, to demonstrate their willingness and power in negotiation and collaboration, and to articulate with reasons and actions instead of empty slogans, then the standard of our Legco and our society will definitely improve.

2.  Concerning the relationship between direct actions and running for Legco election

    Since I have always pursued a strategy of direct protest, many people then asked me why I suddenly wanted to get into the Legco? Have I changed my mind and lost faith in direct protest? Some others thought that I might want to use this election platform to attract more intention to issues I have been advocating.

Either in direct protest (The Movement of Boycotting the Property Tycoons) or in running for the Legco, my primary task is not to gain publicity nor for quick short-term result. I have never believed that human behavior or social culture can be changed easily by other people’s words or actions. Change is a process which may take decades to see initial results. So for me, to stand for election is to support everyone who takes real actions to protest against any hegemonic forces, and to cheer them up to stand fast on this continuing protest without bowing down to power. The mood is similar to some kind of celebration in its implication and function, because protestors can cheerfully showcase their visions and their stories in front of their friends by critical debate before the poll and by exercising their votes in the ballot. To my 6,000+ supporters in New Territories East, the date of election 9 September was the climax of this celebration. These voters had not changed their decision out of a strategic concern, but insisted to vote for me in accordance with their personal conviction. In fact, they had casted a vote for themselves, in support of life practices substantiated by real actions.

I am delighted and honored to have initiated this celebration. Counter-hegemonic movements will go further from here.

Translated by Joseph Cheung