Opinion | Democrats should put its political reform road map on the table

No one should envy Emily Lau Wai-hing for the burden she has taken on by becoming chairwoman of the Democratic Party. But amid the difficulties, there lurks an opportunity for her to strike a bold blow for the advancement of democracy in our city.

The question that remains is whether Lau will spot the opening and have the courage to talk once again to the relevant authorities and cut a deal. It does not matter if she makes the first move or accepts an approach by the other side. What is important is that they get together.

First, the burden: for some time now, the party has been publicly scorned by most other pan-democrats for having had the courage to do a deal with Beijing over the 2010 political reform package which secured the five new "super seats" in the Legislative Council. This criticism has been monstrously unfair because without the agreement there would have been little meaningful progress.

But some of the mud stuck, and the party suffered in the recent polls.

Perhaps for this reason, in an attempt to mend fences, the Democrats have been slow to condemn some of the recent foolish behaviour of their counterparts and have even lent their support. The filibuster by "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung to block introduction of the proposed old people's allowance is one glaring example.

And for an exercise in sheer futility, the repeated attempts to drive Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying from office by procedural means are hard to beat. Maybe the court case was borderline understandable as political grandstanding. But once that had been lost, what was the point of the motion of no confidence (defeated), the bid to set up a select committee with special powers (same result), the move to impeach (sure to meet the same fate), and the call for a march to demand his resignation? This last one was particularly pathetic.

So where should Emily lead the party from here?