This may sound harsh - and I hope Martin Lee Chu-ming won't take it the wrong way - but most people have outgrown him. He hasn't kept pace with Hong Kong's changing mindset over how to achieve democracy. His name was once synonymous with our democracy movement, but today's movement is very different from the one Lee inspired all those years ago.
Many now see democracy as improving governance in Hong Kong rather than keeping mainland communism at bay. That's why it matters little whether or not Lee quits the Democratic Party, as he has hinted he might. It won't be a game-changer either way. Whether he leaves the party he helped found or stays is simply a matter between him and his conscience.
I am not saying Hongkongers no longer identify with Lee's cause. They do. But they no longer believe his way is the only way. I have known Martin Lee for many years. I still remember his visits to Washington - where I worked as a correspondent - in the run-up to the handover of Hong Kong. I remember him as an idealist, someone who was so committed to winning democracy for Hong Kong that he won the admiration of, and access to, many American political leaders.
If there are any heroes in Hong Kong's fight for democracy, Lee is certainly one of them. The other is, of course, Democratic Party old guard member Szeto Wah, who is now suffering from cancer. Together, they stuck firmly to their principles, crusading for democracy to the point that they were banned from the mainland.
That is why it is so painful to see the bitterness between them now. It is painful to see these two old soldiers fighting each other over how they should fight for the cause they both so passionately believe in. They spearheaded Hong Kong's democracy movement, which came of age after the violent 1989 Tiananmen crackdown. It was a movement that captured hearts and minds. Hongkongers saw it as a noble cause led by patriots they looked up to.
Can we really say the people still look up to today's leaders of the democracy movement? Who are the leaders, anyway? Is it legislator 'Long Hair' Leung Kwok-hung, who hurls bananas at the chief executive in the name of democracy? Or his party colleague Wong Yuk-man, who behaves like a foul-mouthed thug in the legislature? How can you fight for democracy when you're fighting amongst yourselves over how to fight for it?