HONG KONG: Hong Kong on Sunday will likely select Beijing’s favoured candidate for its next leader who some say will further divide a city where middle class families have become increasingly disaffected by political tension and economic hardship.
The former British colony, governed under a “one country, two systems” arrangement, was promised a high degree of autonomy and the right to select its chief executive when it was handed over to Communist Chinese rule in 1997.
But on Sunday, 20 years later, only 1,200 people on an election committee stacked with Beijing loyalists will vote for the next leader of the Asian financial hub which witnessed weeks of sometimes violent street protests in 2014 calling for universal suffrage.
Former top civil servant Carrie Lam is widely expected to win, thanks to Beijing’s backing. Former finance chief John Tsang, more popular with the densely populated city’s 7.3 million people, is expected to get around a quarter of the vote.
An evening rally for Tsang on Friday drew thousands who thronged the sidewalks of Hong Kong’s central financial district calling for a populist leader to be elected for once.
“My heart hurts. It really pains me,” said one woman named Leung who works for an NGO. “Why can’t we have a leader who can represent us in Hong Kong... John Tsang’s manifesto is not perfect, but he can unite us,” she said as crowds waved their mobile phones as in a candlelight vigil.
With Lam’s victory on the cards, some middle class residents see the lack of democracy again fuelling political division and fresh protests, leaving them powerless to tackle livelihood issues such as high property prices and rising inequality.
“The middle class are affected by several problems, the rule of law, governance, housing,” said Nick Chung, a 25-year-old working in the IT sector.
“I think it’s no longer a matter of helping the middle class alone. It’s a structural problem.”
Lam has spoken of unifying Hong Kong as one of her top priorities, but some expect her backing from Beijing to have the opposite effect. Li Ka-Shing, Hong Kong’s richest man, has warned that the territory’s once humming economy was increasingly being weighed down by political tension. — Reuters
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