When a ship is about to sink, rats are first to flee. That's precisely what's happening to the so-called Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, or Hong Kong Alliance.

On May 28, local reports said that at least eight district council members' officers exited the HKA, making the total number of members dropping from 206 to 198. Further reports showed that even the 198 remaining members were facing problems.

For example, Wen Wei Pao newspaper found that at least half of HKA's members were "zombie members", who joined it as a social group but have long ceased and no longer exist. Some were students' groups formed on campus, which ceased after the students graduated.

Meanwhile, many of HKA's existing members are "ghost members who joined it years ago as the officers of legislators or district council members. However, in the past several rounds of elections, these members already lost their seats and their offices naturally disappeared, too.

And some are "hibernating members", who have long been absent from HKA's activities. The only difference between them and passersby is they have not submitted an exit letter to HKA yet.

Maybe that's why HKA stopped making the number of its members public since 2014. It claimed to keep that as a secret, and now we know why it keeps it a secret. Some local media even guessed its true, active members to be lower than 20 percent of its boasted number.

Some foreign media outlets even quoted an opinion poll as saying that 28 percent of those surveyed believed it was time to dismiss HKA, the highest record in history.

All these show that HKA has long lost influence among the Hong Kong people and its opinions and moves do not appeal to them. On the contrary, it has caused enough trouble to Hong Kong people that the latter wish it to disappear.

Time to for them to stop turning a deaf ear to Hong Kong people's voices and consider dismissing for the public good.

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