The dust has settled on the Legislative Council (Legco) Kowloon West Geographical Constituency By-election.　　Chan Hoi-yan's victory is convincing and well deserved.

　　Chan Hoi-yan's winning out accords with the aspirations of the people and the general trend.　　Some analysts have summarised that the reason for Lee Cheuk-yan's defeat is because the pro-democratic camp did not pick the right candidate.　　"Ah Yan" is too old and "old-fashioned" so it should have sent a young newcomer to run the by-election.　　Lee Cheuk-yan himself has blamed his defeat on Frederick Fung Kin-kee's "snatching votes" from him.　　Both these two reasons are not the real reasons.

　　As a matter of fact, although Lee Cheuk-yan is indeed not young and notorious for his misdeeds such as "pocketing it [the money] first", he in the final analysis is still an experienced political old hand.　　Hence his age is not a "fatal" flaw.　　Had the opposition instead assigned a younger newcomer to run, he or she would have unlikely won either due to a lack of name recognition.　　Even if the necomer might have won out with more radical young voters coming out to vote, he or she would have inevitably ended up in "self-destruction" due to his/her low cognitive ability, just like Sixtus "Baggio" Leung Chung-hang and Yau Wai-ching.　　As for Lee Cheuk-yan's assertion about "snatching votes", it is - just like what Frederick Fung said – his move to lay his own failure at another person's door and to look for a scapegoat.　　If voters really want to have you elected, there is no way for votes to be "snatched" from you.

　　Therefore, facts are before our eyes.　　Chan Hoi-yan's victory indeed is a result of the convergence of the people's aspirations and will.　　Seats [at Legco] are reserved for the capable, and "capability" here refers not just to Chan Hoi-yan's quality and capability but more importantly to the strength of the people's aspirations and will.　　After suffering setbacks for years, the public becomes more and more aware what is beneficial to Hong Kong and what is harmful to society.　　Between sending one more member of the opposition into the Legco to carry on and escalate antagonism and filibustering and electing a new person putting people's livelihood on the first priority into the legislature, the choice is obvious after weighing the pros and cons and the gains and losses.　　

　　In fact, in this legislative by-election, the opposition has not only continued to use an old hand, but also stuck to its outdated, old-fashioned publicity methods.　　Shortly before the by-election, the SAR Government had denied the work visa renewal for Victor Mallet, a former vice president of the Foreign Correspondents Club (FCC), in accordance with the law.　　Unbelievably, the opposition took this as a "valuable chance" to pile it on right away and assert that freedom of the press was "dead".　　It even begged its foreign masters to intervene, to cavil and carp from overseas.　　It hardly realised that citizens, voters have already had an earful of the sound of this "funeral flute".　　 While a Mallet is not given work visa, there are still over a thousand foreign correspondents working in Hong Kong.　　The Apple Daily is still there to shout abuses every day.　　When the hell did freedom of the press "die"?

　　It was such inertial thinking of antagonism and outdated publicity methods that made Lee Cheuk-yan, the opposition's representative, appear even much older and like an unlucky guy so that it was hard for him not to lose.　　The superficial reason for Lee Cheuk-yan's defeat is because he was not "strong enough in the fight", but the deep-layer reason is that the opposition is already on its last legs.　　And it fails to see the reality that people are now longing for change and for stability.　　So its old trick of using freedom, democracy and human rights to intimidate people now no longer works.　　Citizens are not so much worried about losing freedom of the press and freedom of expression, but are very worried about Hong Kong's economy becoming worse, about more difficult in future to get a flat, about heavier burden for medical care, and about insufficient pensions.　　Hence, continuation of filibustering at Legco will result in a deadly predicament.　　By contrast, "putting people's livelihood on the first priority" could possibly make positive changes.　　This is the major reason for Chan Hoi-yan's victory and Lee Cheuk-yan's defeat.　　　　

　　The people long for stability.　　"putting people's livelihood on the first priority and politics aside" is the mainstream popular wish.　　Only after paying quite an amount of "tuitions", do citizens have gained the profound understanding today that their support should be given to constructive forces.

27 November 2018