Jasper Tsang: Legco middleman finds little sympathy

Jasper Tsang Yok-sing may be one of the most open-minded politicians from the pro-Beijing camp, but even he himself laments that it is getting harder to bridge the rift between the opposition and the central government.

The Legislative Council president concedes that acting as a middleman between pan-democrats and Beijing is no longer easy. "I have said what I should say. But this is no use," he said in a recent interview with the South China Morning Post.

"But you have got to judge whether saying such things would help solve the problem. Even people in my circle blame me, [saying]: 'How can you ask Beijing to relax in the current situation, when radicals dominate?'"

Tsang was referring to his remark in September last year, when he caused a stir by calling on Beijing to "dispel the devil from its mind" and refrain from trying to screen candidates for Hong Kong's chief executive election in 2017.

A more open-minded attitude would facilitate the debate, he urged.

The political heavyweight says the current atmosphere in the city - with Occupy Central preparing to take to the streets once Beijing rules out public nomination for the 2017 election - is too polarised. From his experience, the more antagonised the pan-democrats are, the less willing Beijing is to step back and let Hong Kong people rule themselves.

"I have very strong and clear feelings about this [relationship]," he said. In the early post-handover years, Beijing leaders exercised self-restraint and left Hong Kong people alone. They utterly refused to entertain people like businessmen who went to Beijing to complain about problems in Hong Kong.