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Taiwanese, Hong Kongers angry: panelists
DISENFRANCHISED YOUTH:In Hong Kong, ‘functional
constituencies’ representing big business limit democracy, while in Taiwan, the
ruling party has all the power
By J. Michael Cole / Staff reporter
Amid a growing sense of disenfranchisement, young people in Taiwan and Hong Kong
are increasingly angry and want their governments to pay more attention to them,
two panelists told a conference on democracy building in Taipei yesterday.
Speaking during a panel on majority and minority rights in government at the
“Democracy Building in Interesting Times” conference organized by the Taiwan
Foundation for Democracy, the Heritage Foundation and Institute for National
Policy Research, Alan Leong (梁家傑), a pro--democracy activist and one-time
contender for the post of Hong Kong chief executive, said that while about 60
percent of people in Hong Kong support full democracy, its advocates remain the
minority in the Legislative Council.
“Functional constituencies” representing the interests of conglomerates, big
business and other small groups, as well as interference by Beijing, ensure that
these legislators are forever in the opposition, said Leong, leader of the Civic
Party.
That system, he said, gives those “vested powers” de facto veto powers and
ensures that the “fruits of economic success” are not shared evenly and remain
in the hands of the few.
Leong also said that in light of the proposed electoral models for the elections
of chief executive and the Legislative Council in 2017 and 2020 respectively,
“there is practically no way that Hong Kong can see universal and equal
suffrage” applied during the vote.
Speaking of the deficiencies in the system, Leong said: “It is indeed a
coincidence that the Hong Kong people comes to expect so much from the
opposition parties in a system where the opposition is supposed to be irrelevant
and ineffective.”
“This is not what the designer of our political system had in mind,” he said.
Speaking along the same lines, Parris Chang (張旭成), professor emeritus of
political science at Pennsylvania State University and president of the Taiwan
Institute for Political Economic and Strategic Studies, said that although in
his opening remarks Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) highlighted the need
for legislative oversight of the executive, the rules of the game continued to
be made by the governing party.
“Wang, for example, fought really hard for a review of the -Economic Cooperation
Framework Agreement [ECFA],” Chang said, “but the Executive Yuan did not allow
the legislature to fully review it.”
“Wang said the ruling party should respect the minority, but the government
wants the minority to obey the majority,” Chang said.
“I know Wang is a democrat, but his powers are limited,” Chang said, adding that
he “worried very much about his [Wang’s] future.”
This imbalance in power, he said, stemmed from the remnants of a Leninist system
from which the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) emerged.
By breaking his vow not to become party chairman, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九)
accrued tremendous power, which now allows him to appoint KMT legislators who
will toe the party line and ensure his policies are implemented, Chang said.
Both Leong and Chang agreed that the younger generations were frustrated and
wanted the government to pay more attention to them.
In Taiwan’s case, Chang said, the benefits of economic -recovery and the ECFA
have not trickled down to ordinary Taiwanese, while entry-level salaries for
university graduates are far too low for them to afford buying a house.
As a result, he said, the KMT has become worried because young people are
deserting the party and voting for the Democratic Progressive Party.
In Hong Kong, Leong pointed to the emergence of the “post-80s” generation,
people in their 20s and early 30s who are calling for more political engagement
and don’t want power to be limited to a few conglomerates.
Asked whether the “post-80s” generation identified more as Chinese or Hong
Kongese, Leong said there was “no question” that they viewed themselves as
Chinese, adding that the majority cherished the “one country, two systems” model
as a means to secure Hong Kong’s special identity.
On Taiwan’s role as a model of democratization for China, Leong said Taiwan was
in an ideal position to help, as it “is part of the country [China].”
“Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) cannot say that Ma is a busybody trying to
interfere with the People’s Republic of China’s domestic politics,” Leong said,
adding that similar calls by US President Barack Obama, for example, would have
far less traction as they came from an external element.
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