However, many incidents since then have called that neutrality into question.

An early indication of that was the use of music to drown out protesters in order to protect the feelings of a visiting Jiang Zemin in 1997.

Heavy-handed treatment around the visits of other state leaders since then underscored the sense that the police are more interested in protecting those in power than in upholding the law.

Now the police seemingly are ignoring people who harass Falun Gong demonstrators who are exercising the civic rights that they enjoy in Hong Kong - and nowhere else in China.

Officers are similarly ignoring the thugs who roughed up anti-government protesters outside the community meeting which was subsequently attended by Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying.

Have the police consciously decided to protect pro-Beijing, pro-government forces even at the cost of ignoring their duty to protect all Hong Kong people in accordance with the law?

We are the only free city in China. We remain one of the world's most civilised cities, one in which there is a tolerance and acceptance of dissent.

The police must act to nurture this sense of tolerance, not to undermine it, even in the face of provocation.

This continued politicisation of the police force will do long-standing damage to Hong Kong, just as it did in the United States and many other Western countries in the 1960s and 1970s.

The idea of a Hong Kong police force that has lost the trust of the people, indeed one that is in a chronic state of conflict with mistrustful citizens, is chilling to contemplate.

Tensions are high enough already.

For the sake of the Hong Kong that we all cherish, our political leaders - starting with the chief executive and the secretary for security - must act immediately to depoliticise the police force and ensure that it maintains the trust and respect of the people of Hong Kong.

Egypt, a country with such a long and illustrious history, is on the brink of civil war and with the violence and mounting death toll, its citizens are suffering a lot.

I have watched with horror and deep sadness as even one of its world-renowned museums, housing priceless historic national treasures, has not been spared amid the turmoil.

Hong Kong people should take note of what is happening and the tragedy that can unfold when something goes wrong with an electoral system - when you have one man, one vote with no threshold for the nomination of candidates.

It also illustrates why a head of state should not be the leader of a political party. We must adhere to our constitution, the Basic Law.

Such a coalition, when it works, is just like a one-party system. When it doesn't, it is one big fragmented mess, achieving nothing.

So why bother, when party politics is not even intended and not provided for in the Basic Law? It is even more absurd to talk of Hong Kong being governable only if the party-politics system is thus contrived to work.

No system will ever work with such pig-headed politicians as we have, whose sole objective is to undo any government sanctioned by Beijing. Conversely, any system works fine if it has a reasonable, single-minded and supportive populace, such as Japan's, which has been practically a successful one-party system for the past 50-odd years.

As Ching acknowledged, the system that works best would be one like Hong Kong's old colonial government, a sort of benign-dictator system.

So why worry about the 2017 arrangement not getting a two-thirds majority's blessing? If that happens, we restart with a clean sheet - have a "governor", a majority of appointed members for the legislature and a cabinet, served by an obedient civil service. Democracy guarantees nothing.

It has been announced that closure of the outdoor pool at Victoria Park will be effective from Monday. However, the new indoor pool will not open until September 16.

Obviously the Leisure and Cultural Services Department does not understand the meaning of seamless transition.

The new pool is filled with water, so what is to prevent it opening the day after the old one is closed? Why the two-week delay? We moved an airport overnight in 1998 from one side of Hong Kong to the other, but switching between adjacent swimming pools is too difficult in 2013?

In September we enter school swimming gala season, when the pool is closed to regular users most days. Surely, both pools could operate in tandem until the end of the outdoor season in November. Schools could get their galas and the rest of the community could still enjoy their morning or afternoon swims.

I still wonder why a popular outdoor pool has been replaced by an indoor pool, especially in a climate like Hong Kong where people enjoy swimming outdoors in the summer. But then I recognise that the indoor pool was a surreptitious way to gain an aquatic venue for Asian Games-type events without having to go through a Legco funding exercise.

The official excuse for building the new pool was that the old one leaked. Now that bureaucrats have their aquatic venue, can we have the old pool rebuilt for people to enjoy in the summer?

I do not understand how she can object to your term junket, when family members accompanied the "business" travellers and side trips to other destinations were paid for.

Cheung states Cathay Pacific "will continue to promote aviation knowledge and engage the general public through such events as delivery trips, destination launches, and community programmes". This does not appear like an aviation-knowledge-gathering business trip.

Cathay would be better advised to take disadvantaged members of society rather than councillors. However, it should be noted that the third runway at Chep Lap Kok is a controversial project and the Executive Council and Legislative Council will be integrally involved in approvals and funding.

Cathay is a strong supporter and an interested party, as a major beneficiary of this infrastructure.

These nine councillors are expected to vet and scrutinise any airport proposals in the public interest. Will they now have the grace to abstain from voting on this matter?

K. Y. Leung, Shouson Hill

It is petty and vindictive to maintain the black alert, despite the geopolitics involved in the issue.

Meanwhile, it seems that Hongkongers keep going to the Philippines, with tourist and business figures remaining steady, and probably climbing.