Tik Chi-yuen Not Worried About Being Ignored In Legco

The only non-establishment candidate who won a seat in the new Legislative Council, Tik Chi-yuen, says he doesn’t think he will be ignored, adding he will continue to push for the democratic development in Hong Kong.

Tik, chairman of Third Side who took the social welfare seat, told an RTHK programme on Tuesday that he will try and work with his 89 colleagues from the pro-establishment camp.

“Over the years, the pro-democracy camps have always been the minority in Legco – although there used to be more than one of us. When it comes to voting we never won. So, our power depends on whether we can voice people’s views and express their demands. Perhaps we don’t have votes, but we have the influence,” said Tik.

“If political parties or the government only use the number of votes to suppress different voices and do what they want, it would be the misfortune of Hong Kong. But I’m not so pessimistic. In the legislature, we talk about reasons,” he said.

Tik said he will fight for the relaunch of political reform towards the goal of universal suffrage.

Third Side had formed an alliance with think tank Path of Democracy whose two candidates both lost in the election.

Convenor of the think tank, Ronny Tong, said a low turnout had affected his group’s performance, because some voters stayed away from the polls believing that opposing the central government was “good for the fight for democracy”.

“If non-establishment political parties continue to put national sovereignty of Hong Kong and the fight for democracy at opposite ends or put them in respectively conflicting positions, then I can’t see any future for people fighting for political reform in Hong Kong,” he said.

“There’s no place or no country in the world that you see such a situation where people fighting for democracy are also fighting to overthrow national sovereignty over the place where they live. This is an impossible situation. If you put the people of Hong Kong in that impossible situation, I think democracy will lose,” he said.