On Thursday, the central government formally approved the resignation of chief secretary Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, opening the way for him to begin his election campaign for the post of chief executive.
To most Hong Kong people and the international community, it is a foregone conclusion that he will win.
It is regrettable, although not surprising, that Mr Tsang has refused to debate with the other prospective candidates, Democratic Party chief Lee Wing-tat and legislator Chim Pui-chung, unless they get the required 100 nominations from the 800-member Election Committee. This is disingenuous, because everyone knows that only Mr Tsang will achieve that.
Besides refusing to debate with other candidates, Mr Tsang will also not attend election forums organised by non-governmental organisations and professional groups. This flies in the face of his undertaking that he will face not only the Election Committee, but also the entire community.
Among his many utterances, Mr Tsang indicated that he would make some changes to the operation of the Executive Council. In future, only the chief secretary, the financial secretary and the secretary for justice will regularly attend Exco meetings. Other principal officials will attend only when there are issues which relate to their area of responsibility. The places vacated by the officials will be filled by politicians, businesspeople and other professionals.
According to Article 54 of the Basic Law, Exco is an organ for assisting the chief executive in policy-making, and members are appointed by Hong Kong's leader.
When former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa introduced the 'accountability system' in 2002, the general understanding was that principal officials themselves and the administration as a whole would make policy decisions. Together and separately, they would be held accountable. The system has not worked well, but I agree with the underlying principle.