Forget democracy, try leadership

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Alex Lo is a senior writer at the South China Morning Post. He writes editorials and the daily “My Take” column on page 2. He also edits the weekly science and technology page in Sunday Morning Post.

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The Alliance for True Democracy held a street forum to gauge public views on its universal suffrage proposals in 2017 Chief Executive election.

What do voters want? This should be the first and foremost question to occupy any democratic party or politician who wants to win elections, gain power and run a government. Anyone who doesn't think like that doesn't deserve to be taken seriously. But, ultimately, this is the problem with most pan-democrats.

Hong Kong voters are just like voters everywhere else. When it comes to choosing a leader, they don't want a troublemaker. They want someone who looks smart and has mass appeal - someone they can like and trust. Such a candidate should have principles and purpose, some ideas about where and how she wants to take Hong Kong to a better place than where it is now. If the pan-dems could come up with such a leader, I'd vote for him or her in a second.

But the system is rigged, they say. Fine, come up with a system that is not rigged. At its inception, the design of a democratic system does not need to be a "consensus" exercise. Some of the world's most successful democracies had their systems imposed on them; others evolved over time. A system that is supposedly forged by mass participation is not necessarily more democratic, efficient or legitimate, as Occupy Central organisers think. Voters want a system that works. Not everyone has to take part designing it.

Most people don't care about the Basic Law or international democratic standards, the nomination committee or the central government's power to appoint the chief executive.

But the pan-dems are fighting for a principle called "democracy", not power. I don't know how many times I have heard pan-dems say Beijing had nothing to fear because judging by previous election results, a pro-establishment candidate is likely to win in a free and fair chief executive race.

For God's sake, can those pan-dems ever run a government? Do they even want to run it if power is handed to them? They seem happier forever fighting a democratic struggle than leading Hong Kong.

I don't know whether that is nobility or defeatism but it is the root cause of their obstructionism and political irresponsibility.

Is it too much to ask the pan-democrats to cultivate a leader and candidate who dares to try winning and leading? That would be real political courage.

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Forget democracy, try leadership

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Comments

Camel Sep 29th 2013
8:40pm

Democracy is nothing and doomed to fail without strong leadership.

pslhk Sep 27th 2013
10:20am

Lee Kuan yew: "Order and law"
Jiang Zemin: "Three representations"
Peter Lok: "Noblesse oblige"
latin saying: "Si tu id aeficas, ei venient"

microaulo Sep 26th 2013
10:54pm

Exactly! That 's why pan-dems keep (talk of) fighting for democracy, i.e. their intrinsic fear - losing their voter's vote and their market value. So, who do not want to birth true democracy in HK? Huh, most likely the pan-democrats

jve Sep 25th 2013
10:30pm

Mr Lo is putting the cart before the horse.

Of course in the current political environment and system, it is unlikely to find much leadership talent in the pro-Dem camp. For any bright individual with ambitions in politics/government, the obvious alignment to be made is with the DAB, and nothing else.

Change this, and you will see the cart follow the horse. Devise a system where government power shifts from one party to another are a serious option (unlike the current one), and you will see multiple strong parties with respectable leaderships emerge.

By the way, let's not pretend that the pro-Authoritarianism camp has such fantastic leaders. The only thing they truly lead on is a curious mix of kleptocracy, cronyism, sucking up to Beijing and incompetency.

KwunTongBypass Sep 25th 2013
12:29pm

Another Singapurified "reasoning" of Mr. Lo.

lexishk Sep 25th 2013
5:27pm

Exactly. Under the current system, there is exactly zero point cultivating and putting forward a leader who is not allied to the central government. The system prevents such a person from ever winning the right to lead. Lo may think that peacefully demonstrating for democracy is the pointless pursuit of an abstract ideal, but the only alternative is violent revolution. Would he prefer that? Otherwise, we are stuck with incompetent leaders who have no interest in managing HK in accordance with the interests of its people, and why should we be happy with that?

tenfon Sep 25th 2013
10:49am

A spot on analysis. None of the pro-dem is a credible leader. They lack gravitas, common sense and waste their time and energy fighting amongst themselves. The recent exposure of their involvement in accepting advantages (corruption to the laymen) has further undermined their standing and shown them to be no different from other self-serving groups in Hong Kong.

PCC Sep 25th 2013
8:12am

Good points from Mr. Lo.

John Adams Sep 25th 2013
7:39am

"For God's sake, can those pan-dems ever run a government? Do they even want to run it if power is handed to them? They seem happier forever fighting a democratic struggle than leading Hong Kong".
.
"Is it too much to ask the pan-democrats to cultivate a leader and candidate who dares to try winning and leading? That would be real political courage."
.
" If the pan-dems could come up with such a leader, I'd vote for him or her in a second"
.
Mr Lo : How true, how ABSOLUTELY TRUE !
.
Give me CY , warts, weaknesses and all, over any pan-dem because at least CY is honestly trying to lead .
.
(And I can't think why on earth he took on this awful job with all the personal criticism it entails if it was not for the fact that CY does sincerely want to lead and finally he wants to leave HK in a better condition then when he found it )

whoaman Sep 25th 2013
7:10am

I agree with the author that the pan-dems need to cultivate a leader, not just a bunch of complainers (that seem to react to almost everything, without putting practical and constructive ideas forward). And lest we forget, in the last two 'elections', the democrats did have a candidate nominated to run for CE, Alan Leong and Albert Ho, so i don't think the nomination process would really hinder this. In the US, it's a small minority of voters that actually tend to nominate their candidates before everyone votes on them.
The focus is so strongly on the democratic process or lack therof, when the real problem lies in who to vote for in the pan-democratic camp - I can think of no one I would want to at this point.