For all their diplomatic niceties the Democratic Party leaders and its dissident veteran Wong Sing-chi have shown in public, Wong's plan to leave the party's central committee has revealed stark divisions within the party.

Wong, a former lawmaker and vice-chairman of the party, said earlier he would leave the party's decision-making body to "protect" the party. The decision comes amid a simmering row over his open call for the party's lawmakers to support the SAR government's proposed electoral reform package. This is to be tabled in the Legislative Council next week for deliberation and approval. By openly voicing his support for the electoral reform plan his party leadership has vowed to veto, Wong has publicly defied the party.

With the struggle still playing out, it might be too early to tell what impact this will have on the Democratic Party itself as well as the process of the current constitutional reform for the selection of the next Chief Executive in 2017 via universal suffrage. But the incident has no doubt provided new evidence to the widely circulated view that Hong Kong's "pan-democratic" parties do not practice democracy within their own organizations. Indeed, they have been conducting their internal affairs in an undemocratic way - all major decisions have been made by just a few party stalwarts.

Wong, Tik Chi-yuen and Law Chi-kwong are just some of the "pan-democrat" veterans who have openly expressed their support for the proposed reform package. There are still many other less well-known "pan-democrat" members - who have also either openly or privately voiced their support for the proposed package. Despite strong dissenting voices within their ranks, the "pan-democrat" lawmakers, most of whom are party leaders, have vowed to veto the reform package without first securing a consensus among their party members.

Given their small size (the Democratic Party, the biggest opposition party, has no more than 800 members), the "pan-democrat" parties could have easily summon a general member meeting and let all party members vote on the matter. But they have failed to do so.

The "pan-democrat" leaders have been talking about "international standards" and "democratic procedures". Yet, they feel so much at ease and justified ignoring the voices of their own fellows in making political decisions on such important issues as the proposed electoral reforms. This has added credibility to the views of many: The "pan-democrat" leaders do not take democracy seriously; they only use it as a tool for promoting their agenda.

(HK Edition 04/17/2015 page12)