Now that the dust has settled on the farce of Hong Kong's chief executive election, pledges made by the shoo-in candidate, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, are beginning to evaporate.
During the election campaign, Mr Tsang said he didn't rule out the possibility of one-person, one-vote elections to choose the chief executive and legislators in 2012. He also said he would find an ultimate solution to the question of universal suffrage. Two weeks after the March 25 election, Mr Tsang appears to have gone back on his word.
On Tuesday, the Commission on Strategic Development, assigned to study a road map and timetable for universal suffrage, released two papers. They contained no mention of when universal suffrage would be introduced. The papers put forward diverse views on how and when functional constituencies could be scrapped, if at all. Most commission members, they said, agreed that the chief executive should be elected by universal suffrage after candidates were selected by a nominating committee: the threshold for nomination should be 20 or 25 per cent of the committee.
The commission will meet on Thursday, but the two papers have dashed any lingering hope that the Tsang administration would push for direct elections in 2012. During the election campaign, Mr Tsang spoke with a forked tongue: while pledging to strive for universal suffrage in 2012, he also poured cold water on such an eventuality.
Four days before he was elected, Mr Tsang said he would publish a consultative document on political development in the summer. But, he warned, the model of universal suffrage proposed by 'Emily Lau Wai-hing and her ilk can only be found in heaven'. So he would put forward a 'mongrel' model - a mishmash of various proposals.
Some commentators said a benefit of the contested election is that it forced Mr Tsang to take positions on important issues like democratic elections and small-class teaching. But his pledges on these subjects have proved to be hollow. In February, the legislature's education panel asked Mr Tsang to elaborate on his support for small-class teaching. His reply merely restated government policy: the Education Bureau had launched a study, and would use its findings to map the way forward. So much for his campaign promise.