When Democratic Party Chairman Wu Chi-wai (胡志偉) decided to serve an extended term in Hong Kong’s Legislative Council, he did not expect to resign two months later.
After nearly three decades in politics, the 58-year-old stepped down yesterday.
All 15 legislators in the pro-democracy camp have tendered their resignations to protest a Beijing resolution early last month that led to the disqualifications of four of their colleagues.
Photo: AP
For Wu, quitting was a last resort.
He said that staying on would not have changed things, as the pro-Beijing government is determined to push through policies that the pro-democracy camp would not have been able to stop.
Democracy advocates would need to rethink how to continue their fight now that so much has changed, Wu said.
“I kept my promise, I fought to the end,” he said in an interview, adding that he hopes those who voted for him would not think that they had done so in vain.
Wu often delivered impassioned speeches in defense of democracy. He was arrested earlier this year for participating in an unauthorized vigil in remembrance of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, and later again last month for contempt and interfering with other lawmakers during a clash in May.
Democracy advocates must keep their determination to achieve their goals, even if it takes decades, Wu said.
He conceded that he does not yet know the path ahead, but sounded a hopeful note.
“I’m getting into a whole new ball game,” he said. “It opens a new imaginative area to imagine the future, because in the past I was stuck in a boundary that made me tired.”
The mass resignations came shortly after the beginning of an unprecedented one-year extension of the four-year legislative term. That followed a postponement of Legislative Council elections, with authorities citing public safety issues due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Most pro-democracy legislators criticized the move as unconstitutional, but initially decided to remain. Then came the decision to disqualify four of them, which Wu described as sudden, although not unexpected.
“[With] the latest decision, the central government simply tells everybody in the world that ‘in Hong Kong, we are in total control, everything is under control,’” he said. “So, we need to reconsider the way to fight in the future.”
Wu said that the pro-democracy camp could run in future elections, but he added that they might not be able to serve their whole terms.
“History repeats in a cycle,” said Wu, pointing to the fight for democracy in the Soviet Union and the Tiananmen Square protests.
“The key now is how to keep our determination in the coming time, because it is easy for people to give up when they fail,” Wu said. “We may need to wait for 20 years, and some people may find that discouraging, but ... if we believe in the value of democracy and freedom, we need people to fight for it.”
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