Opinion | Fairy-tale world of pan-democrats
Mike Rowse says a starry-eyed view of politics won't hasten democracy
When our children are young, we allow them to believe in a whole range of harmless myths. Probably the most popular is Father Christmas, who brings presents for youngsters, provided they have behaved themselves during the year.
The Tooth Fairy will replace a dislodged milk tooth left under the pillow with a shiny coin, to soften the discomfort of the growing adult tooth. The Easter Bunny leaves chocolate eggs hidden around the house or garden, to be found by diligent searchers, and so on.
To this pantheon of mythical creatures we can now, thanks to the members of the People Power party, add a new one: the Democracy Fairy.
Regular readers of this column will know that I am a strong supporter of greater democracy for Hong Kong. Our people are mature and politically savvy. The vast majority will not run amok; rather, they can be relied on to exercise their votes responsibly.
A major task for our government, our political parties - indeed, our whole community - over the next seven years is to make the 2017 target for direct election of the chief executive, and the 2020 target for direct election of all legislative councillors, a reality.
So the best course of action for our pan-democrats is to work out how to cajole the current chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, into coming up with meaningful reform packages for the next round of elections starting in 2016.
While Leung has made some missteps in his first six months, he has also got some important policy issues right. Moreover, short of a disaster, he is going to remain our leader for the next five years. He has no intention of resigning and Beijing has no intention of firing him.