![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
defrogAs you may know, for the last couple of years Hong Kong has been arguing ad nauseum over political reform in order to establish full-on democracy here – with “full-on” meaning “everyone gets to elect the Chief Executive, and you can vote for anyone you want as long as they’re all pre-approved by Beijing”.
Which is why Occupy HK and the Umbrella Kids happened last year, because the students said “Fuck that.”
Anyway, the govt’s reform package went up for a final vote yesterday, with both sides making a final pitch by basically repeating everything they said before.
Pro-govt: “This is a big step forward, everyone finally gets to vote like you always wanted and you can always fix what you don’t like later.”
Pan-democrats: “Fuck you and yr fake democracy.”
The pan-demos won. By a large margin: 28-8.
But that margin is misleading, because there are 70 members of Legco. Just before the vote, some 30 legislators – all of them from the pro-govt camp – got up and walked out.
Apparently they were attempting to halt the vote by not having enough legislators present to form a quorum (allegedly to buy time for one of their colleagues who was stuck in traffic and running late). Turns out their math is terrible – after the walkout, LegCo still had a quorum with the remaining legislators. The vote went ahead, and the pan-demos pwned it.
Which they were expected to do anyway, by the way – not because they had enough votes, but because the pro-govt parties didn’t have a big enough majority (two thirds) to pass the reform package.
Still. What a way to lose.
The lesson: maths is important.
Also, it pays to pay attention during the LegCo debate instead of watching sexy billiards videos on yr iPhone. (Kidding.)
Needless to say, Beijing is not amused.
But then they have a nerve to be surprised. I’ve been critical about the way the pan-demos and the Umbrella Kids have conducted their side of the debate, but the pro-govt parties, the current admin and Beijing itself have all been just as idiotic. President Xi Jinping decided to play the hard line with HK on political reform, letting us know in no uncertain terms that Beijing gives the orders here and has every legal right to give them and if you don’t like it, that sucks for you. The pro-govt camp went right along with that, and the CY Leung admin has collectively gone out of its way to alienate the pan-demos and the Umbrella Kids instead of handling the situation in a way so that everyone got what they wanted, or felt better about what they were getting.
But no.
What happens now? We’ll see. Certainly the pan-demos will start again and angle for a better deal, but Beijing’s official response to the vote has suggested that the only deal they’ll consider is the same one they offered the first time.
So it will probably be more of the same for now.
Oh, and of course the 2017 CE elections will happen under the current rules, which means we’ll have another Beijing-appointed CE until at least 2022. There will be a lot of dithering over that, most of it overblown. Despite claims from the local ruling class that defeating the reform package would be bad for business, HK as a functional economy will probably get along just fine without democracy for the next 10 or 20 years.
The bigger problem is how badly the populace has ripped itself apart over this issue. Both sides are to blame for that, but neither will admit it, and it’s going to take years for them to get over it.
Developing …
Epic fail,
This is dF
Which is why Occupy HK and the Umbrella Kids happened last year, because the students said “Fuck that.”
Anyway, the govt’s reform package went up for a final vote yesterday, with both sides making a final pitch by basically repeating everything they said before.
Pro-govt: “This is a big step forward, everyone finally gets to vote like you always wanted and you can always fix what you don’t like later.”
Pan-democrats: “Fuck you and yr fake democracy.”
The pan-demos won. By a large margin: 28-8.
But that margin is misleading, because there are 70 members of Legco. Just before the vote, some 30 legislators – all of them from the pro-govt camp – got up and walked out.
Apparently they were attempting to halt the vote by not having enough legislators present to form a quorum (allegedly to buy time for one of their colleagues who was stuck in traffic and running late). Turns out their math is terrible – after the walkout, LegCo still had a quorum with the remaining legislators. The vote went ahead, and the pan-demos pwned it.
Which they were expected to do anyway, by the way – not because they had enough votes, but because the pro-govt parties didn’t have a big enough majority (two thirds) to pass the reform package.
Still. What a way to lose.
The lesson: maths is important.
Also, it pays to pay attention during the LegCo debate instead of watching sexy billiards videos on yr iPhone. (Kidding.)
Needless to say, Beijing is not amused.
But then they have a nerve to be surprised. I’ve been critical about the way the pan-demos and the Umbrella Kids have conducted their side of the debate, but the pro-govt parties, the current admin and Beijing itself have all been just as idiotic. President Xi Jinping decided to play the hard line with HK on political reform, letting us know in no uncertain terms that Beijing gives the orders here and has every legal right to give them and if you don’t like it, that sucks for you. The pro-govt camp went right along with that, and the CY Leung admin has collectively gone out of its way to alienate the pan-demos and the Umbrella Kids instead of handling the situation in a way so that everyone got what they wanted, or felt better about what they were getting.
But no.
What happens now? We’ll see. Certainly the pan-demos will start again and angle for a better deal, but Beijing’s official response to the vote has suggested that the only deal they’ll consider is the same one they offered the first time.
So it will probably be more of the same for now.
Oh, and of course the 2017 CE elections will happen under the current rules, which means we’ll have another Beijing-appointed CE until at least 2022. There will be a lot of dithering over that, most of it overblown. Despite claims from the local ruling class that defeating the reform package would be bad for business, HK as a functional economy will probably get along just fine without democracy for the next 10 or 20 years.
The bigger problem is how badly the populace has ripped itself apart over this issue. Both sides are to blame for that, but neither will admit it, and it’s going to take years for them to get over it.
Developing …
Epic fail,
This is dF
