More liberal-minded people should be invited to join the Executive Council, businessman and social welfare advocate Bernard Chan said after rejoining the government's top advisory body yesterday.
Critics pointed out that the 29-seat council - which has 15 official members, including the chief secretary and ministers, and 14 non-official ones - lacks pan-democratic members.
Half of the non-official members are seen as friendly to Beijing, as members of either the National People's Congress or delegates to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.
Chan said appointing more liberal figures to the body would clear doubts about Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying's sincerity to engage the wider community.
'Given [that] the public are sceptical of him, it will do him good to invite more liberal-minded people [in the coming months],' Chan told the South China Morning Post after the first meeting yesterday of the new Executive Council.
'Having said that, it is impossible to invite the opposition, as they are not going to agree with you anyway.'
Leung has indicated that more lawmakers will be appointed to Exco after the Legislative Council election in September.