Focus of reform debate on 2017 election all wrong, laments academic Michael DeGolyer
We've all got it wrong in the big reform debate, laments academic Michael DeGolyer as he packs his bags and prepares for life as a farmer
Walk into the small office of Professor Michael DeGolyer in Baptist University and one can hardly miss the abundance of books in the library of one of the leading scholars on Hong Kong's political economy.
But soon they will be cleared. Despite DeGolyer's love of the city he has called home since 1988, he will have no choice but to leave Hong Kong for good this week due to the worsening levels of pollution.
This was something probably beyond his expectations when he arrived in the British colony after finishing his PhD to study what he said was a perfect case of state-market interaction.
"My wife is having serious eye problems caused by pollution," DeGolyer says in a worried tone when talking about his partner of 42 years. "Her eyes got really bad because of all the particulates."
After an equally dusty year in politics, DeGolyer, 62, will step down from his professorship in the university's department of government and international studies on Thursday. A day later, he will be on his flight back to America to finalise preparations for the opening of his farm in the state of Washington, close to the Canadian border.
Those two days, not without irony, will be the defining moment of Hong Kong's constitutional development, as lawmakers debate and vote on whether to pass or veto the government's reform package for the 2017 chief executive election.
Pan-democrats have vowed to vote down the proposal because they say the 1,200-strong nominating committee Beijing insists on will hardly return candidates of their stream, thus denying voters a genuine choice.