My Take | Elections can give paws for thought

Concerns raised by Executive Council member Cheng Yiu-tong about the flaws of unrestrained democracy have attracted a lot of comments. He was worried that some sex symbols might get elected if we adopt a "Western style" democracy.

It was not clear if he had Ilona Staller, aka Cicciolina, in mind. She was a porn star who was an Italian MP between 1987 and 1992.

Famous for delivering political speeches with one breast exposed, she continued to make hardcore pornographic films, which in fact was her livelihood, while being a member of parliament. But before deriding her completely, one has to note that she was never linked to secret bunga bunga parties or sex scandals like some of the country's top political leaders. So it is bit hard to argue who came off better here.

Cheng's argument is that some kind of filtering is needed before candidates are allowed to stand for election. Being just popular should not be the only criteria.

He may have a point here. Because if you go by popularity alone, Brother Cream, the cat, would probably poll more votes than some of the political leaders we have.

The demand for Brother Cream's book and rush to get its "pawtograph" at the Hong Kong book fair that ended on Tuesday, was a clear sign of that.