(民主黨, Hanyu: mín zhǔ dǎng, Jyutping: man zyu dong) is a pro-
Democracy and
Liberal Political Party in the
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the
People's Republic Of China . It was established on
October 2 ,
1994 . The party is currently headed by Chairman
Lee Wing Tat , and has 611 ordinary members and 25 associate members as of
March 2006 .
From the outset, the party supported the restoration of
Chinese sovereignty over Hong Kong. Apart from that, the party's stance on Hong Kong's future development differs with pro-
Beijing parties. It believes Hong Kong must develop more democratic institutions and preserve freedoms and human rights in order to achieve prosperity.
The party proposed policies on various areas of governance through designated spokespersons, including:
- Amendment of the Basic Law to achieve more democracy and safeguard freedoms, while achieving closer economic cooperation with Mainland China .
- Protection of Human Rights .
- Maintain Hong Kong's status as an international finance and trade centre and improve its economic infrastructure (concrete details not given), as well as a more flexible way to control public expenditure.
- Better monitoring of public services and utilities (i.e. more accountability), and strengthened measures to Protect The Environment .
- More resources for education, with less vague policies.
- Reasonable (i.e. larger) share of economic achievements by the employee for the employee, and increased involvement by the Government to protect labour laws in accordance with social needs.
- Adopt measures to regulate property prices from fluctuation, and provide adequate Public Housing
- Increase spending on social welfare.
- Universal suffrage by 2007/8 (but since Dec 2005, 2012).
Overall, the Democratic Party advocates economic policies {Link without Title} pretty close to " Liberalism " in the Rawls ' sense (rather than, say, Nozick 's or Hayek 's as commonly accepted outside North America), in sharp contrast with the traditional radical free-market orientation of Hong Kong. However, this point is rarely mentioned in the speeches held by party members during their trips abroad to seek political support. The party's position on social or cultural issues is not well-defined but verges on the Conservative , partly due to sizeable support from Catholic constituents. In a way that may seem contradictory to traditional liberal ideology, the party generally opposes the legalization of commercial sex or gambling operations.
The Democratic Party was formed with the merger of the two largest pro-democracy political groups at the time, the
United Democrats Of Hong Kong which was formed in April
1990 , and the
Meeting Point which was formed in
1983 . It was the first group to formally consider itself a political party in Hong Kong.
Before the transfer of the sovereignty of Hong Kong from the UK to the People's Republic of China in July
1997 , the DP was the largest party - following the earlier success of the pro-democracy camp in the 1991 LegCo election, the party won 19 seats in the 1995
Legislative Council (LegCo) election.
The popularity of the party principally rose from its position towards the
Tiananmen Square Protests Of 1989 , for which it had solemnly condemned the Chinese Government. In the run-up to 1997, with widespread sentiment of uncertainty then towards the future of Hong Kong under Chinese rule, the party supported the controversial package of political reform bought about by the last British colonial
Hong Kong Governor ,
Chris Patten .
The party's stance conflicted with the PRC government's, which, for a while, earned the party more popularity and recognition both locally and overseas. The founder and then party chairman, Mr.
Martin Lee Chu-ming , became well-known internationally in the run-up to reunification as a human rights and democracy fighter, and won a number of international human rights awards.
The party refused to join the
Provisional Legislative Council established in December
1996 in protest of its formation. As the body became the official legislature of Hong Kong SAR after reunification, the party lost all its seats in the legislature, until the first LegCo election of the HKSAR on
24 May 1998 .
Under the proportional representation system which the HKSAR Government considered a better system in representing the spectrum of views of the community, the party secured 12 out of 60 seats in the first LegCo election in 1998, including 9 out of 20 seats from geographical constituencies, where the party got 43% of the votes.
During this period, the party suffered from a decline in popularity. Some analysis attributed this to increased concerns on economic issues as opposed to political ones, and the unpopular position of the party on issues such as the
Right Of Abode Issue in
1999 . In the second LegCo election two years later in
2000 , the vote share of the party from geographical constituencies dropped to 35%, and the party secured 9 out of the 24 directly elected seats. Its total number of seats in LegCo remained at 12.
Meanwhile, the party was plagued with internal fragmentation, further affecting its image.
Lau Chin Shek was expelled from the party in
2000 . LegCo member Mr. Chan Wai-yip quit the party in December
2001 following the succession of former Chairman Martin Lee by Yeung Sum, leaving the party with 11 seats in the LegCo. In April
2002 , some members in the "Young Turks" camp within the party left and joined
The Frontier .
The cause of such factionalism arose from the political and economic orientations of the party platform. On the political side, some "Young Turks" of the party considered that the party leaders were too eager to establish a "dialogue" with
Beijing and the HKSAR Government, and were not confrontational enough vis-a-vis the authorities. Some also considered the party too "middle-class"-oriented and distant from the grass-roots on labour issues, such as proposed legislation on minimum wage which the party did not support.
2002 and
2003 saw a rebound in popularity, largely due to the
Article 23 issue and the low popularity of the HKSAR Government headed by
Tung Chee Hwa . The party benefited from its opposition standpoint, and achieved an impressive victory in the 2003
District Council election, claiming 92 seats compared with 86 in the last election in 1999.
In
2004 , the popularity of other groups and individuals in the pro-democratic camp (such as members of the
Article 45 Concern Group and
Albert Cheng ), together with the emergence of scandals of two of the party's candidates in the
LegCo Election this year, began to wane. As a result, the Democratic Party only won 9 seats (7 in geographical constituencies and 2 in functional constituencies) overall, becoming the third largest party in LegCo behind the
Democratic Alliance For The Betterment Of Hong Kong (12) and the
Liberal Party (10). It is alleged that the tactics used by the party to secure votes in the geographical constituency of
Hong Kong Island ironically led to the defeat of another democratic camp candidate,
Cyd Ho , causing further dissatisfaction among democratic camp supporters within the party.
Starting from early
2005 , 24 members had quit the party, including district councillor Fong Chan Bong (forced by party) and Lau Tak Cheung. 13 district councillors also left the party. Its number of district councillor fall from 92 to 79.
In
March ,
2006 , the Mainstream faction alleged that some senior members were involved in spying activities of China. The "suspects" were all Young Turks members including vice-chairman
Chan King Ming and
Gary Fan . Tension between the two factions increased.
The
Civic Party was established in
March ,
2006 . It is not clear that whether the DP will lose its members to the CP.
The "" is the leading faction of the party since the party found in 1994. It is led by
Lee Wing Tat . It composed of both Meeting Point members (those who're not moderate) and United Democrats. It has 7 Legco members. It supports the line of Legislative Council, cross-classes direction and limited communication with the
Communist Party Of China .
The "" is the main opposition faction inside the party. It is led by
Gary Fan . It has 1 Legco member. It is mainly formed by former student leaders such as
HKFS ex-chairman
Cheung Yin Tung and The Hong Kong University Students' Union ex-chairman Fung Wai Kwong. It called for the separation of power between party legislators and party leaders. It opted for a more radical line than the Mainstream Camp. Other important members include
Cheng Kar Foo and
Chan King Ming (party-vice chairman). In
1997 , some of the Young Turks members joined
The Frontier .
The or the Labours was a faction formed by union leaders. They included
Lau Chin-shek and
Lee Cheuk-yan . They are leaders of the
Hong Kong Confederation Of Trade Unions . The unionists mainly expelled or quit the party.
The "" refers to moderate Democrats who were from the Meeting Point. It has 1 Legco member.
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Martin Lee (
1994 -
2002 )
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Yeung Sum (
2002 -
2004 )
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Lee Wing Tat (
2004 -)
