Opinion | No harm gathering ideas and proposals from all sides

For the first time since the handover, Beijing's top representative in the city will tomorrow enter the Legco building and have lunch with all lawmakers, regardless of their political views.

Not all 70 lawmakers are expected to be present - a few have decided against meeting Zhang Xiaoming, the director of the central government's liaison office, and one of the most experienced Beijing experts on Hong Kong affairs.

While some are calling tomorrow's affair an "ice-breaking" gathering, to expect the meeting to lead to warmer ties between Beijing and the pan-democrats would be wrong. What the sit-down does mark is the beginning of Beijing's shift towards a more proactive approach in dealing with universal suffrage.

Both Zhang's office and Legco president Jasper Tsang Yok-sing have tried hard to keep expectations in check, warning the public against hoping for too much to emerge from a single lunch. Tsang has stressed it would be only a "social" event.

Zhang last week reiterated that the "time has not yet come" for an official public consultation on arrangements for the 2017 election of the chief executive. But there are people unwilling to wait much longer: the Alliance for True Democracy released three controversial proposals last Wednesday; while the chairman of the Basic Law Institute, Alan Hoo, will today announce his proposal and urge the government to launch a consultation soon. Hoo is a figure who carries weight within the pro-establishment camp.

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has so far resisted pressure to move quickly on the topic. When he attended Legco's question-and-answer session last Thursday, he was bombarded by pan-democrats asking why a public consultation was still not on his agenda.

Leung said an early consultation would not mean universal suffrage being adopted ahead of time.