Selina Chow warns pro-establishment politicians over voters' support
Selina Chow says pro-establishment politicians may lose voters' support if disagreements with Beijing are discussed behind close doors
Pro-establishment politicians will have difficulty winning voters' support after being told by a state leader that they should convey dissenting views to Beijing behind closed doors rather than airing them in public, the Liberal Party's chairwoman said yesterday.
Selina Chow Liang Shuk-yee was speaking a day after party leader James Tien Pei-chun was sacked from the nation's top political advisory body for urging Beijing-backed Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to consider resigning.
Also on Wednesday, the chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference was quoted as saying that delegates with dissenting views, like Tien's, should take them directly to Beijing instead of airing them publicly.
"If pro-establishment politicians are hesitant about airing criticisms, the voice of moderates within the pro-establishment camp will be sidelined," Chow told the South China Morning Post.
"It would be unfavourable for pro-establishment politicians when canvassing support in future elections."
She believed that maintaining discipline within the Beijing-friendly camp in the "political struggle" against the Occupy Central movement was behind the CPPCC's sacking of Tien, who later also quit as party leader.
Meanwhile, amid efforts to resolve the political impasse over Beijing's strict rules for the 2017 chief executive election that has left parts of the city paralysed by demonstrators, a pan-democrat lawmaker said the city's No 2 official had agreed to consider meeting members of the camp.