Professional Forum (), formerly known as the Breakfast Group () and The Alliance (), was a loose

political group A parliamentary group, parliamentary caucus or political group is a group consisting of members of different political parties or independent politicians with similar ideologies. Some parliamentary systems allow smaller political parties, who a ...

of the

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

politicians in the

Legislative Council A legislative council is the legislature, or one of the legislative chambers, of a nation, colony, or subnational division such as a province or state. It was commonly used to label unicameral or upper house legislative bodies in the Brit ...

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

. In October 2012, the group formed the

Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong The Business and Professionals Alliance for Hong Kong (BPA) is a pro-Beijing, pro-business political party in Hong Kong. Chaired by Lo Wai-kwok, the party is currently the second-largest party in the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, holding ...

(BPA) with other LegCo members from the pro-business sectors.

Breakfast Group

The Breakfast Group was set up in 1991 in the

Legislative Council of Hong Kong The Legislative Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, colloquially known as LegCo, is the Unicameralism, unicameral legislature of Hong Kong. It sits under People's Republic of China, China's "one country, two systems" c ...

by Simon Ip Sik-on and Eric Li Ka-cheung and consisted of four other legislators elected through the functional constituencies or appointed by the

Governor of Hong Kong The governor of Hong Kong was the representative of the United Kingdom, British The Crown, Crown in British Hong Kong, Hong Kong from 1843 to 1997. In this capacity, the governor was president of the Executive Council of Hong Kong, Executiv ...

. Each representing their professional sectors' interests, they had no clear political affiliations and were considered as relatively moderate and independent and acted as a third force between

pro-democracy Democratization, or democratisation, is the structural government transition from an authoritarian government to a more democratic political regime, including substantive political changes moving in a democratic direction. Whether and to what ...

and

pro-Beijing The pro-Beijing camp, pro-establishment camp or pro-China camp is a political alignment in Hong Kong which generally supports the policies of the Beijing central government and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) towards Hong Kong. The term " ...

camps, although it was largely pro-government. In 1994, the Breakfast Group members Simon Ip and Martin Gilbert Barrow, who said they would vote for the

Liberal Party The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left. For example, while the political systems ...

's amendment on

Chris Patten Christopher Francis Patten, Baron Patten of Barnes (; born 12 May 1944), is a British politician who was the Chairman of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1992, and the 28th and last Governor of Hong Kong from 1992 to 1997. He was made a lif ...

's constitutional reform proposals, however abstained at last which resulted in the defeat of the Liberals' amendment, while Timothy Ha Wing-ho voted against the amendment and voted for Patten's proposals. During the 2000–2004 sessions the Breakfast Group had seven Legislative Councillors, led by Eric Li from the

Accountancy Accounting, also known as accountancy, is the process of recording and processing information about economic entities, such as businesses and corporations. Accounting measures the results of an organization's economic activities and conveys ...

until his LegCo retirement in 2004 and included Bernard Chan ( Insurance constituency), Raymond Ho Chung-tai (

Engineering Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to Problem solving#Engineering, solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve Systems engineering, s ...

), Kaizer Lau Ping-cheung ( Architectural, Surveying and Planning constituency), Abraham Shek Lai-him ( Real Estate and Construction constituency),

Lo Wing-lok Lo Wing-lok, JP (; 13 September 1954 – 9 May 2015) was a Hong Kong doctor and politician. He was the Legislative Councillor for the Medical functional constituency from 2000 to 2004. He was the vice-chairman of the pro-democracy League o ...

( Medical constituency) and Ng Leung-sing ( Election Committee constituency).

The Alliance

The Breakfast Group renamed into the Alliance in October 2004 after the 2004 LegCo elections by remaining group members Bernard Chan, Raymond Ho and Abraham Shek. New members Patrick Lau Sau-shing (Architectural, Surveying and Planning constituency) and Lui Ming-wah ( Industrial (Second) constituency) joined into their groups. Bernard Chan was appointed member of the Executive Council on 12 October 2004.

Professional Forum

The Group renamed itself Professional Forum following the

2008 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2008. * Electoral calendar 2008 * 2008 United Nations Security Council election Africa * 2008 Angolan legislative election * 2008 Anjouan presidential election * 2008 Republic of the Congo Senate elec ...

. The Forum consists of four members, Abraham Shek, Patrick Lau, Raymond Ho and Priscilla Leung Mei-Fun who was elected through the Kowloon West

geographical constituency In Hong Kong, geographical constituencies, as opposed to Functional constituency (Hong Kong), functional constituencies, are elected by all eligible voters according to geographically demarcated constituency, constituencies. There are currently 5 ...

. In October 2012, the group formed the

with other LegCo members from the pro-business sectors.

References

{{Hong Kong political parties 2008 establishments in Hong Kong 2012 disestablishments in Hong Kong Conservative parties in Hong Kong Defunct political parties in Hong Kong Political parties disestablished in 2012 Political parties established in 2008

Breakfast Group

The Alliance

Professional Forum

See also

References