香港政黨政治: 過去、現在及未來 (Lecture 4)

The lecture 4 of General Education and Public Affairs Certificate Course (通識及公共事務證書課程) was held on 2 October 2010. The summary was shown as follow.

第四課 (2 October 2010)
香港政黨政治:過去、現在及未來
馬嶽博士主講.
Dr. Ma is the speaker and his topic entitled “Development of Party Politics: Past, Present & Future”.


Dr. Ma briefed the history of party development in Hong Kong. Before 80s, there were three major pro-democracy groups included:
i) Meeting Point (匯點) established in 1983;
ii) Association for Democracy and People’s Livelihood (民協) established in 1986; and
iii) Hong Kong Affairs Society (太平山學會) established in 1984.

Dr. Ma said the fastest development period of parties was from 1991 to 1997. The following major parties were formed.
· In 1992: CRC (啟聯資源中心) re-organized in 1994 as the Liberal Party (自由黨)
· In 1992: pro-PRC & HKFTU leaders formed DAB (民主建港聯盟)
· In 1994: UDHK and Meeting Point merged to form the Democratic Party (民主黨)
· In 1996: pro-China, pro-business HK Progressive Alliance (港進聯)
· In 1996: Frontier (前線) was formed
· In 1997: HKPA absorbed LDF and merged with DAB in 2005
· In 1997: 123 Democratic Alliance (meaning一國兩岸三地) and Citizens’ Party were formed

After 1997, fragmentation effect largely due to Proportional Representation System (比例代表制).
· In 2006: Civic Party (公民黨) was formed.
· In 2006: League of Social Democrats (LSD) (社會民主連線) was formed.
· Loose groups in Legco: 早餐派, 泛聯盟, 專業會議
· Federation of Trade Unions (工聯會)

The following diagram demonstrated the different characteristic of parties in their position.

Where HKPA (港進聯), LP (自由黨), DAB (民建聯), FTU (工聯會), DP (民主黨), ADPL (民協), CP (公民黨), CTU(職工盟) & LSD (社民連)

The political spectrum showed in Dr. Ma’s book.

Compared Dr. Ma’s book and the lecture notes, I found that the different in the position of CP which tend to move to foundation citizen. One interested thing Dr. Ma pointed out that there was no party represented Pro-business and pro-Democracy.

Dr. Ma identified some factors which affected the party development.
i) Few channels of power
ii) Weak legislature difficult to attract talent
iii) Unfavorable attitude of China and SAR government in party politics
iv) Low level of participation & mobilization, especially middle class & professionals
v) Meager resources
vi) Functional Constituencies (功能組別) were unfavorable to party development

Dr. Ma said party fragmentation would be increased. (用政治學來說, 議席一直加, 政黨一路分裂.) Moreover, the conflict between political parties, civil society and public confidence in Hong Kong would be foreseen. It is difficult to change without fundamental political reform.

I brought Dr. Ma’s book named “香港政治 – 發展歷程與核心課題”.

Moreover, I got Dr. Ma’s signature.

Reference:
http://www.synergynet.org.hk/b5_m9_detail.php?id=1035
Dr. Ma’s Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/ma-yue-Ma-Ngok/173577218262
新力量網絡SynergyNet 的網誌 (Facebook): http://zh-hk.facebook.com/notes.php?id=250164765864