New chief executive Leung Chun-ying's vow to meet the public regularly in town-hall style assemblies was widely belittled yesterday - a day after his first round of such visits - with one commentator labelling him hypocritical.
Critics raised questions about the motive for the meetings, suspecting Leung of seeking to favour his supporters in Beijing-loyalist parties, gaining them publicity ahead of September's legislative election.
Leung and some of his ministers visited six districts on Monday afternoon, spending 75 minutes in each to take residents' questions.
In Tseung Kwan O, one resident asked why the environment minister had not attended the meeting in a district that was battling encroachment by a landfill, while the education minister was there.
And while Leung has publicly earmarked housing as his policy priority, the minister concerned, Professor Anthony Cheung Bing-leung, did not appear at any of the meetings.
Lingnan University political science professor Li Pang-kwong said the ministers in question probably did not appear at the meetings because they were planned hastily. He also said it would be impossible for the Chief Executive's Office, with its current manpower, to have done any real analysis of people's views during the assemblies.
Chinese University political commentator Ivan Choy Chi-keung accused Leung of hypocrisy.