Thanks for your article, "Unfulfilled Aspiration for Ten Years", about Yu Lai Fan's advertising poster on Main Street.

You mentioned that one of the groups that might contest the next District Council elections in November is People Power: "One of them might be from the People Power party who split off from the Pan-Democrats."

Actually, People Power, led by Wong Yuk Man, broke away from the League of Social Democrats, which itself has a rather ambivalent relationship with the other pan-democratic parties, Civic Party and the Democratic Party. Unlike People Power, though, it appears that LSD will be coordinating with the other pan-democratic parties their District Council campaigns so as not to compete directly with one another. People Power, on the other hand, has said that it will directly challenge the Democratic Party because the Democratic Party broke its campaign promise in the last LegCo elections and decided to vote for a slightly revised version of the 2012 Electoral Reform plan of the Hong Kong government, thus ensuring its passage.

Technically, our LegCo representative here on Lamma is Albert Chan, who is a member of People Power. When he ran for LegCo, he was still a member of LSD, but he was one of two LSD LegCo representatives who broke away and formed People Power, the other being Wong Yuk Man. So in that sense, you could even say that Lamma is People Power territory!

In regard to the similar platforms of People Power and DAB in regard to Lamma, that may very well be the case, but I can assure you that the two parties' ways of pursuing their objectives are very different, and looking around Lamma, you can see for yourself what DAB has (or has not) done for the island. At any rate, the two parties' difference in form means in reality a great difference in substance too. Essentially, DAB is the establishment and works in close relationship with government to deliver porkbarrel projects to supporters, while People Power is about mobilizing people to take responsibility for their communities and drive the decision-making process.

The pan-democratic parties are focusing more on these District Council elections than in the past because of the new "superdelegate" seats in LegCo that will be contested by District Councilors in the next LegCo election. So even though the District Councils are often regarded as do-nothing backwaters, the pan-democrats are trying to reinvigorate that level of Hong Kong politics, and anyone who cares about democracy in Hong Kong surely should support their efforts.

I don't know much about Lamma politics specifically, but it seems to me that the ideal Lamma District Council candidate would be from Living Lamma or would be a candidate supported/endorsed by Living Lamma and other progressive forces on the island. A well-organized campaign could at the very least disrupt DAB's entrenchment, is well worth the effort, and would be an important force toward making Lamma the much more liveable place many of us residents believe it can be and focusing on ensuring that decisions about the island involve as wide a swath of the people who live here as possible.

Sorry for replying late to your post above, I missed it amongst all the free classifieds.

Thanks for your great reaction and clarifications on my story. I agree with you on most points and would be happy to see more than a single Lamma candidate standing for election in this Nov.'s DC elections.

It would make for some very interesting Lamma-zine stories, I hope. I'd offer a platform to all candidates equally to voice their platforms and ideas for Lamma, of course. The last time we had an opposing candidate was 8 years ago, he was from the Civic Party, managing a respectable and surprising almost 30%.

So we might see a People Power candidate and maybe even one from Living Lamma?

_________________
Click here for Lamma-zine stories and recent Lamma Spotlights of the Week:
Photo, Video, Person, Wildlife, Bird, Artwork.

Living Lamma isn't a political party, it couldn't operate as a community environmental group if it was.