Is it the end of the road for Hong Kong s once powerful opposition

HONG KONG – Hong Kong’s opposition camp of pro-democracy political parties once held enough power in the city’s legislature to block the passage of Bills that it deemed detrimental to the city’s residents.

In 2015, for example, it held more than a fifth of the seats in the Legislative Council (LegCo),enough to block, through filibustering, a copyright Bill to address online piracy that it feared would suppress internet freedom.

Ten years later today, however, they are not even a shadow of their former selves – none of these parties holds any seats in the LegCo under a revamped electoral system designed to keep those critical of Beijing or the government of the day out of the legislature.

Indeed, the largest and most successful of them, the Democratic Party, is moving to disband in the coming months.

The second largest, the Civic Party, was dissolved in 2023, with other opposition outfits having shut down earlier.

The path ahead for Hong Kong’s opposition voices looks increasingly bleak.

Some observers whom The Straits Times spoke to say it is “the end of the road” for opposition representation in the city, although others remain hopeful for negotiation room in the narrowing space for differing views in civic society, albeit not in the legislature.

Hong Kongers, however, appear to want some alternative voices in Parliament, according to a recent survey.

The biannual poll conducted by local think-tank Path of Democracy and released on March 12 found that 48 per cent of the 1,000 Hong Kongers it polled in January and February were dissatisfied with the city’s opposition-free legislature.

“Some people felt that many lawmakers are speaking only to flatter Beijing, rarely provide their own insights and are unfamiliar with or passive in vetting the Bills,” said the think-tank’s founder Ronny Tong.

“It would be