Don't be so sure that the public will kick 'em out

Go to the polling station, vote them out. That was the tough talk from Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying last month. He wants voters to throw out the democrats in next year's Legislative Council elections. Public Eye isn't sure if Leung was being serious or just trying to elicit a laugh from his audience of investment bankers. But forgive us for repeating this tired cliche: a week is a long time in politics. Next year is light years away. There's a smug confidence in the pro-establishment camp. Many believe public anger over the dragged-out civil disobedience protest has so damaged democracy legislators that they will surely lose next year. There's only one way to describe this overconfidence: political idiocy. The Occupy protest was at the tail end of last year. The Legco election will be at the tail end of next year. So much can happen between now and then that anyone who believes voters have already signed death warrants for the democrats needs their head examined. Renewing ATV's licence would have done it, playing straight into the hands of democrats who could have convincingly claimed Beijing calls the shots even on television licences. ATV didn't get its licence, but Ricky Wong Wai-kay is still awaiting a decision for his second shot at one. Another Executive Council refusal would give the democrats a fresh line of attack. A new expose on Leung, like the one about him pocketing HK$50 million, would sink the pro-establishment camp. Many Hongkongers grew weary of Occupy but that doesn't mean the democrats have lost their support base. What it means is that the support base is vulnerable. Does the pro-establishment camp know how to exploit this? We doubt it.

Have our politics become so bankrupt that we must now stoop so low as to childishly snipe over what happened 30 years ago? First, Leung Chun-ying insisted Basic Law drafters never considered public nomination for chief executive candidates. Nonsense, scoffed drafter Martin Lee Chu-ming, who insisted one of five proposals did include a form of public nomination. Wrong, retorted Beijing loyalist Elsie Leung Oi-sie. Both she and Leung then backtracked a little. Civic Party leader Alan Leong Kah-kit accused the chief executive of purposely muddying the waters as part of Beijing's plot to break its democracy promise. Rubbish, scoffed another drafter, Maria Tam Wai-chu, who said Leung needn't have backtracked. Tam said the proposal that 50 citizens could nominate a candidate wasn't public nomination, as Lee claimed, because the candidate still had to face a 600-member election committee. Enough already. Who cares what did or did not happen 30 years ago? The fact is the Basic Law doesn't allow public nomination. Can we please move on?