'IT'S THE FIRST time I've stood for election and I'm not a public figure. To have a better chance of victory I need their help,' said Mathias Woo Yan-wai one afternoon, referring to a poster of him flanked by veteran Democrats such as Martin Lee Chu-ming, Yeung Sum and Lau Chin-shek. 'More importantly, a photo with better-known figures is more useful than a lot of words.' Having made his point, he returned to canvassing votes for the Urban Council's North Point West seat.
That was in March 1995, and a fortnight earlier Woo had pleased many political correspondents by enrolling in the election. Here was a 26-year-old architect-cum-artist who'd chosen to have an electoral baptism of fire: his opponents included an incumbent councillor, a veteran Liberal Party member and a candidate supported by a pro-Beijing association.
He was to lose the election, but his tally of 2,719 votes shook his opponents. He came second, only 651 behind the Liberal's Jennifer Chow Kit-bing and more than 1,500 ahead of the Democratic Foundation's Tony Chan Tak-wai. (Incumbent councillor Jason Yuen King-yuk polled only 749 votes.) Woo's trademark bow-tie and thick-rimmed spectacles made him stand out from the crowd. He was geeky but his unwaning enthusiasm in direct political participation made him a darling of the media and the pro-democracy camp.
Today, the bow tie is gone, and so is that fiery spirit that urged him to pronounce 'I'll be back' after the results were announced nine years ago. What lies behind the glasses, the only artefact to remain from those hectic days, is disenchantment with Hong Kong's political game and its players - including some of those who backed him in that campaign.
'Politics is being made into a part-time profession these days,' he says. 'It only gives you parking space in Central, government officials have to take your calls and what you do is just shouting matches. There are so few politicians who are really committed and responsible for what they do.' Even political grandees such as Lee and Szeto Wah 'have done quite a few stupid things - the media is just not critical enough'.
His disdain towards the political establishment is much in evidence in his recent work. Arts collective Zuni Icosahedron's East Wing West Wing series, which Woo writes and directs jointly with long-time working partner Edward Lam Yik-wah, is awash with criticism of shallow sloganeering politicians. One theme that underlines the third and latest instalment, Mic On!! Mic Off!!, is the imbecilic vision of pro-democracy and pro-establishment politicians, the former with a simple and uninformed pursuit of universal suffrage and the latter with wretched arguments about - or against - democracy.
