Leung Chun-ying yesterday reached out to the man in the street for the second day in a row, paying a visit to Yuen Long, where he extended an olive branch to rural leaders involved in a controversial February dinner that had clouded the chief executive race.
The chief executive-elect, who showed up unannounced in Wan Chai and Kwun Tong the day before, appears to be engaging in an exercise in damage control after his trip to the central government's liaison office on Monday raised eyebrows.
Strolling around a wet market, Leung received a petition from a resident calling for traditional rights of indigenous villagers in the New Territories to be protected.
At the Yuen Long Town Hall, he met a group of Yuen Long community chiefs who sat on the 1,193-strong Election Committee, which voted for the city's next chief executive last Sunday.
'I hope to spend the next few months turning my platform into feasible policy initiatives,' he said.
Participants of the 15-minute gathering included six rural leaders who joined staff members of Leung's campaign office in Lau Fau Shan for a February 10 dinner that businessman Kwok Wing-hung also attended.
The dinner had raised talk of triad involvement in the election as Kwok, nicknamed 'Shanghai Boy', allegedly has triad links. Leung's campaign office denied any connections with triads, and no one has admitted inviting Kwok to the meal.