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A recent survey by the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies (HKIAPS) of the Chinese University of Hong Kong found that 70 percent of the 800 respondents thought political parties in general, were not performing as well as they did 10 years ago, while less than 5 percent said the parties' overall performance was satisfactory. The political implication of this revelation deserves careful study.

First, the poor performance of Hong Kong's political parties as a whole is the main reason their popular recognition is so low. The survey shows 70 percent of respondents said their impression of the parties' performance in general was not as favorable compared to a decade ago, while 17.3 percent found no change in the past 10 years, and only 8.6 percent of respondents thought the parties' performance was better. In terms of public satisfaction for political parties' performance, 50.3 percent of respondents rated them as "average", 42.1 percent unsatisfied and merely 4.6 percent were satisfied.

It also found 56.5 percent of respondents believed the parties could not make tangible contributions to society because they were constantly fighting one another; only 17.9 percent disagreed. As for the reasons why people join political parties, 45.2 percent thought the primary reason people joined political parties was to profit themselves rather than to serve the public interest. Only 14 percent did not take that view; and 38.4 percent chose "50/50".

Public expectations for the future of political parties' are not encouraging either, with 47.9 percent expressing pessimism and only 10.1 percent describing themselves as optimistic, while 39.3 percent went for "half and half".

These results show Hong Kong residents are pessimistic about the current state of political parties mainly because of their disappointing performance, for which the public cites the parties' obsession for bickering as the principal cause. A ready example of what people mean can be found in frequent self-serving attempts by certain parties to prevent the Legislative Council (LegCo) from green-lighting government policies aimed at benefiting the public.

Second, radical opposition parties have become a force to be reckoned with in Hong Kong, an alarming development people should not take lightly. Although the HKIAPS survey shows weak popular support for political parties across the board, with 59.8 percent of the respondents saying none are worth supporting, it is still worth noting that out of the 10 parties covered in the survey, the Civic Party (CP), People Power (PP) and the League of Social Democrats (LSD) are ranked third (5.1 percent), fourth (4.2 percent) and eighth (1.5 percent) respectively in terms of support. Together these three radical opposition parties boast more popular backing (10.8 percent) than either the No 1 party, the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB, 10.6 percent), or No 2 the Democratic Party (DP, 7.5 percent), which is considered a moderate opposition party.

With the support of their base, the radical CP, PP and LSD have succeeded in disrupting the administrative process of the SAR government repeatedly in recent years, such as by delaying the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge construction project, blocking the government reorganization plan and stalling the legislative process to approve funding for the Old Age Living Allowance for elderly residents in need. Therefore it is necessary to undercut their political energy by weakening their popular support, because lobbying and compromises cannot convince them to change course.

Third, political parties that love the country as well as Hong Kong still have a long way to go in terms of growth and maturity. These parties, with the exception of the DAB (on top with 10.6 percent support), did not fare particularly well in the HKIAPS survey, with the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions in fifth place (2.1 percent), the Liberal Party seventh (1.7 percent) and the New People's Party ninth (0.8 percent) among 10 covered in the survey.

There are multiple reasons behind such disappointing results as far as popular support for these parties is concerned. The leading external cause is that it is very difficult for the parties to keep a balance between supporting the administration of the current CE and principal officials, and maintaining effective supervision on the government. In other words, failure to balance support for the government and relaying public opinions well tends to cost these parties popular support.

As for internal causes, all these parties suffer from inadequate political skills among their membership in general, which does nothing to improve their public image and make it hard for the masses to feel drawn to them politically.

The author is a veteran in current affairs commentary.

(HK Edition 12/01/2012 page3)