The Civic Party and the League of Social Democrats have unveiled details of their collective resignation plans for Hong Kong's five geographical constituencies, declaring the resulting by-elections a de facto referendum on universal suffrage.

After their announcement, Beijing warned the two parties that any so-called "referendum" would be inconsistent with the city's legal status and a blatant challenge to the Basic Law and the authority of the Central Government. Chief Executive Donald Tsang reiterated that the government will not recognize the results of any vote from the resignation as some sort of "referendum" because it has no legal ground. Despite the fact that the government will not recognize the "referendum" call, Secretary for Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Stephen Lam has confirmed that the by-elections will be arranged pursuant to relevant law.

The tactic is clear now: the opposition camp started off by blaming functional constituencies and unfair political representation for anger in some public quarters toward the planned high-speed railway. It was to be followed by the so called "mass" resignation. In order to sway public opinion against the government or pro-establishment camp, the opposition camp will associate any social problems in society with the existing electoral system. These include the widening gap between rich and poor; unaffordable property prices, etc. It is expected they will continue to use this tactic for future controversial issues.

The hidden intention of the resignation is to force the Central Government to compromise based on an anticipated result of the so-called "referendum". In case of any concession granted as a result of the "referendum", it will encourage the opposition camp to make further use of the mass resignations as so-called "referendums" to pressure the government on other issues.

The benefit expected by the opposition parties is obvious: the two advocating parties will portray themselves as populist "heroes" who have sacrificed their interests in order to speed up universal suffrage. They can make use of public money with an aim to hijack the media and gain public attention over the next two to three months. Their popularity seems likely to increase at the expense of taxpayers.

Indeed, this game creates a lot of losers. The first loser is, of course, the general public. Last week, I wrote to explain how important it is for Hong Kong that political development move forward in 2012. The collective resignation will only divert public attention; in return, it will tend to decrease public engagement in the consultative process. The purpose of the mass resignation is to divert public attention, and if the opposition parties can do so successfully, the losers definitely will be the people of Hong Kong, since it threatens to undermine the criterion of "gradual and orderly progress".

In addition, taxpayers will end up paying a significant amount of their money for the by-elections. Lam has estimated the expense for holding the by-elections in the five geographical constituencies to be as high as HK$150 million. Also, the government must provide financial assistance of HK$10 for each vote cast for each candidate. A huge sum of money has to be spent to fund a number of politicians' quests to achieve their own political gain.

Furthermore, it will push the process of democracy towards radicalism and further split society. The debate on the speed-rail link has already divided the community into hostile camps. In order to move forward, the legislature and society as a whole must learn to compromise and respect the views of others. We cannot stop legislators from resigning from their posts. As Hong Kong citizens, we can consider casting out votes as expressions of our anger toward their acts.

The author is a member of the Legislative Council

(HK Edition 01/29/2010 page1)