Cyd Ho Sau-lan () is a former member of the
Legislative Council of Hong Kong
The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (LegCo) is the unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It sits under China's " one country, two systems" constitutional arrangement, and is the power centre of Hong Kong ...
(Legco) for the
Hong Kong Island constituency
The Hong Kong Island geographical constituency was one of the five geographical constituencies in the elections for the Legislative Council of Hong Kong from 1998 to 2021. It was established in 1998 for the first SAR Legislative Council elect ...
.
She is a founding member of the
Labour Party, since December 2011, and currently holds the position of vice-chairwoman. Previously, she was a founding member of
The Frontier, another pro-democracy
political group
A political group is a group consisting of political parties or legislators of aligned ideologies. A technical group is similar to a political group, but with members of differing ideologies.
International terms
Equivalent terms are used differ ...
. Since 2006, she has been a founding councillor of the
World Future Council
The World Future Council (WFC) is a German non-profit foundation with its headquarters in Hamburg. It works to pass on a healthy and sustainable planet with just and peaceful societies to future generations.
FuturePolicy.org
The website f ...
.
She has garnered a reputation for promoting universal suffrage, rule of law, human rights, and equal opportunity, as well as advancement in the interests of women, homosexuals and other minority groups.
Education
Ho studied at the
University of Waterloo
The University of Waterloo (UWaterloo, UW, or Waterloo) is a public research university with a main campus in Waterloo, Ontario
Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality ...
, Canada. She worked in the textile trading industry from 1979 to 1995.
Career
In 1991, Ho helped
Emily Lau
Emily may refer to:
* Emily (given name), including a list of people with the name
Music
* "Emily" (1964 song), title song by Johnny Mandel and Johnny Mercer to the film ''The Americanization of Emily''
* "Emily" (Dave Koz song), a 1990 song ...
during the election campaign, the first open direct election of Legco in Hong Kong. In 1993, she founded the liberal pressure group "United Ants" with other pro-democracy political activists. In 1995, she worked as an assistant to
Margaret Ng
Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee (; born 25 January 1948) is a politician, barrister, writer and columnist in Hong Kong. She was a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong from 1995 to 2012.
Biography
Before entering the legal profession, Margaret ...
, a lawmaker representing the
legal profession
Legal profession is a profession in which legal professionals study, develop and apply law. Usually, there is a requirement for someone choosing a career in law to first obtain a law degree or some other form of legal education.
It is difficult t ...
in Legco. In 1996, along with other political activists, she founded
The Frontier.
She was elected a legislative councillor for the geographical constituency of
New Territories East in 1998 in the first Legco election since the
transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong
Sovereignty of Hong Kong was transferred from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China (PRC) at midnight on 1 July 1997. This event ended 156 years of British rule in the former colony. Hong Kong was established as a special admini ...
from the UK to China. She was re-elected in the c in 2000. She chaired bills committees such as the 2004 Education (Revised) Bill and the 2004 Examination Authority Bill, and was vice-chair of the panel on environmental affairs. She chaired the Sub-committee under the Home Affair Panel to study questions of discrimination based on sexual orientation between 2000 and 2004.
She was elected as a
District Council member of the Central and Western district via the Kwun Lung (觀龍) constituency in November 2003, unseating veteran
Ip Kwok-him
Ip Kwok-him, GBM, GBS, JP (; born 8 November 1951) is a former unofficial member of the Executive Council of Hong Kong, served between 2016 and 2022. He is also former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong for the District Council ...
of the
DAB with a margin of 64 votes. She also supported members of other pro-democracy political groups such as Civic Act-up, which were also contesting seats in the Wanchai district council.
In 2004, she, together with
James To Kun Sun
James To Kun-sun (; ; born 11 March 1963) is a Hong Kong lawyer and Democratic Party (Hong Kong), Democratic Party politician. From 1991 to 2020, To was a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, representing the District Council (Sec ...
,
Frederick Fung Kin Kee
Frederick Fung Kin-kee, SBS, JP (; born 17 March 1953) is a former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong from 1991 to 1997 and from 2000 to 2016 and the former chairman of the pro-democracy Hong Kong Association for Democracy and Peo ...
,
Wong Sing Chi
Nelson Wong Sing-chi (born 11 October 1957) is a Hong Kong politician and social worker. He had been member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong between 2000–04 and 2008–12. He was the founding member of the Democratic Party before he ...
,
Mak Kwok Fung
Michael Mak Kwok-fung () (born 23 August 1955 in Hong Kong) is a Hong Kong politician. He is an elected representative of the Wan Chai District. He was the founding deputy chairman of the League of Social Democrats, and was elected to the Advisory ...
, attempted to cross the border and meet Beijing officials at
Shenzhen
Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...
, to request a faster pace of
democratisation
Democratization, or democratisation, is the transition to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. It may be a hybrid regime in transition from an authoritarian regime to a full ...
in Hong Kong.
2004 Legco election
The
2004 Legislative Council election returned candidates to office based on a party-list
proportional representation
Proportional representation (PR) refers to a type of electoral system under which subgroups of an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. The concept applies mainly to geographical (e.g. states, regions) and political divis ...
system. There were four viable tickets running for election for the
Hong Kong Island constituency
The Hong Kong Island geographical constituency was one of the five geographical constituencies in the elections for the Legislative Council of Hong Kong from 1998 to 2021. It was established in 1998 for the first SAR Legislative Council elect ...
. The left was represented by the
Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong
The Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB) is a pro-Beijing conservative political party in Hong Kong. Chaired by Starry Lee and holding 13 Legislative Council seats, it is currently the largest party in the l ...
's ticket, consisting of
Ma Lik
Ma Lik, GBS, JP (; 23 February 1952 – 8 August 2007), was a Legislative Councillor, and was the Chairman of the Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB), a pro-Beijing political party in Hong Kong.
Education
Ma Lik attended ...
and
Choy So-yuk
Choy So-yuk, BBS, JP (, born 10 October 1950) is a Hong Kong politician. She was an elected member of Eastern District Council and a Hong Kong Deputy of the National People’s Congress. From 1997 to 2008 she was a member of the Legislative ...
; and the centrist ticket was represented by
Rita Fan
Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai (; ' Hsu; ''born'' Hsu Ching-li; born 20 September 1945) is a senior Hong Kong politician. She was the first President of the Hong Kong SAR Legislative Council from 1998 to 2008 and a member of the Standing Committee of ...
.
The pan-democratic camp decided, after strategising, to put up two tickets for election: the
Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to:
*Democratic Party (United States)
Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to:
Active parties Africa
*Botswana Democratic Party
*Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea
*Gabonese Democratic Party
*Demo ...
's ticket with
Martin Lee
Martin Lee Chu-ming, SC, JP (; born 8 June 1938) is a Hong Kong politician and barrister. He is the founding chairman of the United Democrats of Hong Kong and its successor, the Democratic Party, Hong Kong's flagship pro-democracy party. He ...
and
Yeung Sum
Yeung Sum (; born 22 November 1947 in Guangzhou) is a Hong Kong politician and academic. He served several terms as a Legislative Councillor and was the second chairman of the Democratic Party (DP), a pro-democracy political party in Hong ...
, and
Audrey Eu
Audrey Eu Yuet-mee is a former member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong and was founding leader of the Civic Party. She was a member of the Executive Committee of the Civic Party, focusing on party development. In politics, Eu has fo ...
and Cyd Ho's ticket. The thinking was that the remainder vote on both these tickets was sufficient to return all four candidates to office, providing that voters in the pan-democratic camp were coordinated effectively. Cyd Ho was defeated by a slim margin (815 out of a total of about 350,000, or 0.23%) to her nearest DAB rival, Choy So-yuk.
Originally, the slogan "1+1=4" was taken as a way to strategically allocate votes between the two pan-democratic camp tickets, namely that a spouse from each couple would vote for each ticket. Conspiracy theorists claim that, during the final days leading up to the election, the Democratic Party believed it could secure a seat for their third candidate, Lai Chi-Keung. The Democratic Party hence allegedly requested all supporters of the pan-democratic camp in the Hong Kong Island geographical constituency to vote for them, claiming that Audrey Eu's star presence on the other ticket was strong enough to skew votes to the other ticket.
In the end, Lai ended up a few hundred votes short of Cyd Ho, costing them both the chance for a seat. This ultimately benefited Cyd Ho's DAB rival Choy So-yuk. A number of disgruntled voters of the pan-democratic camp demanded that then-DP chairman Yeung Sum and Founding chairman Martin Lee Chu-ming both step down in consequence.
Post-election
In addition to remaining as a key member of the Frontier until 2006, Ho hosted weekly radio programmes on two local radio stations in 2006 – on
RTHK
Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK) is the public broadcasting service in Hong Kong. GOW, the predecessor to RTHK, was established in 1928 as the first broadcasting service in Hong Kong. As a government department under the Commerce and Econom ...
and
PRHK. She hosted a radio show on the
internet radio
Online radio (also web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio, IP radio, Internet radio) is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not transmitted ...
station My Radio on Thursday nights (2200–2300 HKT).
In 2006, she quit the Frontier and became the chairperson of the
Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor
The Hong Kong Human Rights Monitor (HKHRM) () is a local non-governmental organisation which was established in April 1995. It aims to promote better human rights protection in Hong Kong.
The organisation is concerned about issues like Nationa ...
and the co-convener of Project Civil Referendum, a scheme to pilot and promote the idea of holding a
referendum
A referendum (plural: referendums or less commonly referenda) is a direct vote by the electorate on a proposal, law, or political issue. This is in contrast to an issue being voted on by a representative. This may result in the adoption of a ...
in Hong Kong.
In 2007, when the death of
Ma Lik
Ma Lik, GBS, JP (; 23 February 1952 – 8 August 2007), was a Legislative Councillor, and was the Chairman of the Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong (DAB), a pro-Beijing political party in Hong Kong.
Education
Ma Lik attended ...
vacated a Hong Kong Island Legislative Council seat, she originally decided to run in the by-election, but later she decided against. Also, she declined to stand again for her district council seat to prepare for her 2008 Legco election campaign.
2008 Legco election
Ho stood for and was returned in the Hong Kong Island geographical constituency for the
2008 Hong Kong legislative election
The 2008 Hong Kong Legislative Council election was held on 7 September 2008 for the 4th Legislative Council since the establishment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. There were 60 seats in the 4th Legislative Council, with 30 memb ...
. She finished with the fifth highest number of votes in the six-member constituency, 30,887, or 9.85%. Her running mate in 2004, Audrey Eu of the Civic Party, obtained 30,362.
Labour Party
In December 2011, after The Frontier had failed to pass its own resolution to dissolve, she joined with
Lee Cheuk-yan
Lee Cheuk-yan (; born 12 February 1957 in Shanghai) is a Hong Kong politician and social activist. He was a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong from 1995 to 2016, when he lost his seat. He represented the Kowloon West and the Manufac ...
,
Cheung Kwok-che and others to form the Labour Party, taking up the position of vice-chairwoman. She was re-elected in 2012 elections.
LGBT rights
In 2012, soon after Ho re-elected as member of Legco, she put forward a proposal calling for public consultation on legislation to outlaw discrimination based on sexual orientation. This proposal was supported by most of the pro-democrats and some pro-Beijing lawmakers, but was veto by Democratic Party lawmaker
James To
James To Kun-sun (; ; born 11 March 1963) is a Hong Kong lawyer and Democratic Party politician. From 1991 to 2020, To was a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, representing the District Council (Second) constituency. In his fin ...
(who voted abstained) and pro-Beijing conservative parties. During her terms, Ho is one of only few legislators to openly support
same-sex marriage
Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same Legal sex and gender, sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being ...
and other
LGBT rights
Rights affecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people vary greatly by country or jurisdiction—encompassing everything from the legal recognition of same-sex marriage to the death penalty for homosexuality.
Notably, , 33 ...
, conservative parties and groups criticised her on this issue. Though most of the pro-democrats support non-discrimination laws, they are less openly discuss and talk about this issue, as the pro-democrats have many supporters with many social conservative views.
2016 Legco election
She lost in the
2016 Hong Kong legislative election
Sixteen or 16 may refer to:
*16 (number), the natural number following 15 and preceding 17
*one of the years 16 BC, AD 16, 1916, 2016
Films
* '' Pathinaaru'' or ''Sixteen'', a 2010 Tamil film
* ''Sixteen'' (1943 film), a 1943 Argentine film ...
with 19,376 votes, placed ninth in the Hong Kong Island constituency, along with the former party chairman
Lee Cheuk-yan
Lee Cheuk-yan (; born 12 February 1957 in Shanghai) is a Hong Kong politician and social activist. He was a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong from 1995 to 2016, when he lost his seat. He represented the Kowloon West and the Manufac ...
, leaving the Labour Party only one representative in the legislature.
2020 arrest
On 18 April 2020, Ho was arrested as one of 15 Hong Kong high-profile democracy figures, on suspicion of organising, publicising or taking part in several unauthorised assemblies between August and October 2019 in the course of the
anti-extradition bill protests. Following protocol, the police statement did not disclose the names of the accused, however others arrested include veteran lawyers
Martin Lee
Martin Lee Chu-ming, SC, JP (; born 8 June 1938) is a Hong Kong politician and barrister. He is the founding chairman of the United Democrats of Hong Kong and its successor, the Democratic Party, Hong Kong's flagship pro-democracy party. He ...
and
Margaret Ng
Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee (; born 25 January 1948) is a politician, barrister, writer and columnist in Hong Kong. She was a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong from 1995 to 2012.
Biography
Before entering the legal profession, Margaret ...
.
See also
*
Politics of Hong Kong
The politics of Hong Kong takes place in a framework of a political system dominated by its constitutional document, the Hong Kong Basic Law, its own legislature, the Chief Executive as the head of government and of the Special Administrat ...
*
List of political parties in Hong Kong
Hong Kong had a multi-party system, with numerous parties in which no one party was allowed to gain power by controlling the Legislative Council. The Chief Executive is selected by the Politburo based on an indirectly elected Election Committee ...
*
2019–20 Hong Kong protests
*
List of University of Waterloo people
The University of Waterloo, located in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, is a comprehensive public university that was founded in 1957 by Drs. Gerry Hagey and Ira G. Needles. It has grown into an institution of more than 42,000 students, faculty, and ...
References
External links
Official website of Cyd HoOfficial website of Legislative CouncilCyd Ho at swissinfo.ch
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ho, Cyd
1954 births
Living people
District councillors of Central and Western District
Hong Kong social democrats
University of Waterloo alumni
Alumni of Hong Kong Baptist University
LGBT rights activists from Hong Kong
Charter 08 signatories
The Frontier (Hong Kong) politicians
Labour Party (Hong Kong) politicians
HK LegCo Members 1998–2000
HK LegCo Members 2000–2004
HK LegCo Members 2008–2012
HK LegCo Members 2012–2016
Hong Kong political prisoners