Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen and his small band of newly hatched politico-bureaucrats may be thinking of breaking open the Chinese-made champagne following their 'victory' in securing majority support for constitutional reform proposals. But they might first wish to contemplate the truth that, in a prolonged political campaign, the winners can also be the losers.
It is, of course, true that the government has scored two notable victories in pushing through its reform plans and dividing its most formidable opponents, the democrats - but at what cost? The authority and credibility of the government has been shattered by Beijing's direct intervention in this process, leaving the Hong Kong government at best as messengers and, at worst, as hapless bystanders.
Once central government officials took a direct hand in the negotiations, without even bothering to have Hong Kong officials on the premises, all promises of autonomy in local affairs were shattered. This dealt a fatal blow to the concept of 'one country, two systems', which is supposed to prevail here.
And once Tsang's team decided to behave like real politicians, their campaign actually succeeded in turning public opinion against them. Things got worse when Tsang himself moved to centre stage by challenging Audrey Eu Yuet-mee of the Civic Party to a televised debate and she effortlessly trounced him.
Longer-term damage has been inflicted by severely reducing the rule of law to nothing more than a matter of political expediency. This was seen as seemingly authoritative interpretations of the Basic Law, the constitutional bedrock of Hong Kong's legal system, moved, within days, from being based on judicial principles to interpretations that matched the political requirements of the moment. If the constitution is to be so emasculated, what hope is there for the system as a whole?
But it is not only the government that has cause for concern because the Democratic Party is hardly happy. Having claimed to have negotiated the breakthrough and succeeded in making progress towards democracy, it now faces paying a high price for its work.
The party is split and it seems likely that the mantle of democratic camp leadership will pass to those who maintained opposition to the compromise solution. For the time being, the party has been buoyed by mainstream opinion which has yearned for movement on democratic reform. But, as night follows day, disillusion will set in as it becomes clear that this so-called interim step is little more than a trap designed to obstruct further progress towards universal suffrage.