In those 10 years, he and the DAB have not worked effectively to promote social justice in Hong Kong and to show the masses the benefits that a socialist democracy, under the leadership of the Communist Party, could bring.

Take, for instance, the minimum wage, the poster issue of socialism. If the DAB fought hard to bring decent living wages to our working poor, I am sure that its members, and other pro-Beijing candidates, could count on the votes of these workers.

After all, the poor make up the majority of people in Hong Kong, and the pro-Beijing candidates would be ensured a victory under universal suffrage.

Instead, Mr Ma wasted a golden opportunity, and has now undermined the DAB's credibility by making a statement about Tiananmen - an issue that everyone in the political circles of China avidly dodges.

It is because the DAB has not done enough to help our underclass, and promote the virtues of social democracy, that Hong Kong is now deemed unpatriotic and unfit for universal suffrage.

The job of generating patriotism and goodwill towards the mainland takes a lot more than the simple-minded emission of sycophancy the DAB seems solely capable of.

The central government should seriously review the performance of its proxies in Hong Kong and perhaps replace some of them, as they are actually doing more harm to patriotism than the pan-democrats.

Zack Culvert, Wan Chai

Wrongs must be righted

I wonder how much intellectual and spiritual angst Ma Lik must have endured in saying what he did about the Tiananmen massacre ('Fury at DAB chief's Tiananmen tirade', May 16) - being a well-educated person who has grown up in a free society and enjoyed all its rights. Rights such as free access to information, unlike our compatriots in mainland China.

With his amazing attempt to whitewash one of the most infamous atrocities in modern Chinese history, Mr Ma has unwittingly done more for the cause of Tiananmen victims and sympathisers - and against the image of his own party - than he could possibly have imagined.

What could have given him the idea that the people of Hong Kong - a million of whom marched in protest against the brutal crackdown in June 1989 - could so easily be brainwashed into turning a blind eye to a national tragedy of such proportions, and that this had anything to do with 'patriotism'?

It reminds me of Samuel Johnson's saying: 'Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel', though I would much rather think of what the American statesman Carl Schurz once said: 'Our country, right or wrong. When right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be put right.'

That, not mindless obedience to a controlling authority, is what makes a true patriot.

Tony Hung, Ma On Shan

Toeing the line on Tiananmen

I do not think anyone should be surprised at the views expressed by Ma Lik ('Fury at DAB chief's Tiananmen tirade', May 16).

After all, Mr Ma is a communist and, as such, is required to support the views and extol the virtues of the Chinese Communist Party without ever feeling the need to subject them to rational analysis.

It must be remembered that the key aims of communism are the acquisition, centralisation and, above all, maintenance of total power. Recent Chinese history is replete with examples of the savage retribution meted out to the party's opponents. The horror which took place in Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989, is but one, yet it remains the freshest in most people's minds.

Mr Ma's comments also reflect several other key characteristics of Chinese communism: the desire to control the way people think and, thus, behave; the instinctive willingness to play down excesses committed by the party; the belief that the party and the country are one and that, therefore, no opponent of the party can possibly be patriotic; and the contempt for non-Chinese that comes from an innate sense of racial superiority.

I look forward to reading all the replies which point out that as a mere 'gweilo' I have neither wit nor right to pass any judgment on this 'internal' matter.

Peter Johnson, Lantau

Pay him his 30 pieces of silver

Oh dear, it gets worse. Now Ma Lik thinks he may have acted hastily ('I might have acted rashly, says Ma Lik, May 17). He can't be certain about anything, can he? And you reported that he holds a position of leadership for democracy!

Please, just pay him his 30 pieces of silver so he can go and enjoy it, while the rest of us get on with living in the real world.

Keith McMullen, Wan Chai

Back to basics of boredom

While I share Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee's concern about English-language standards ('Get back to basics', May 14), and agree we cannot treat English as though it were a mother tongue for most students, I disagree with her on how to solve the problem.

Mrs Ip makes a number of disparaging and unfounded comments about the communicative approach to language learning. This approach is far from being a free-for-all in which accuracy plays no part. On the contrary, attention to grammatical form is an essential component of practically every language textbook and the majority of teacher training.

Her claim that a communicative approach 'relies heavily on the interaction of the learner with the environment' ignores the fact that a language classroom is an environment in its own right, and in which purposeful communication can, and should, take place.

What separates communicative language teaching from the 'back-to-basics' approach is that the former sees language as an instrument of interaction, encouraging learners to master grammatical structures in order to communicate more effectively. Drilling students on isolated points of grammar is extremely ineffective, not least because it is remarkably dull for most learners.

Stephen Bolton, North Point

Run like hell

The perennial political chaos in the Philippines ('Violence, massive cheating sour Philippine election' (May 15), reminds me of a wish made by a compatriot during one of our past elections.

A great admirer of the British legacy in Hong Kong, she made the startling statement that she wished Britain would colonise our country.

I pointed out that we had already been a colony, under the United States, and reminded her that our late president, Manuel Quezon, had patriotically declared: 'I prefer a government run like hell by Filipinos than one run like heaven by the Americans!'

Obviously, we're doomed to have leaders running the government like hell.

Isabel Escoda, Lantau