I THINK it is high time we all stopped conniving in the seduction of Anson Chan. Mrs Chan is a more than adequate Chief Secretary. Given reasonable luck she will have about three years in the post before the change of sovereignty, which ought to be enough for anybody.
However, we now have endless speculation among journalists over whether she will retain high office under China's rule. This is the kind of game all journalists are reduced to from time to time.
A new president arrives in Washington and the press immediately knows that sometime, somehow, he has to fill numerous positions, some of them important and influential. Almost any name can be floated for these. The president has not made a choice so no theory is wrong.
So, it is understandable that people should speculate about who is likely to be the first Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR), even though, as far as we know, no decision has yet been made.
This is a harmless hobby and has the same advantage as astrology: by the time the truth emerges, erroneous predictions will have been forgotten.
Sundry names have been floated - the Chief Justice Sir Ti Liang Yang, Lo Tak-shing, Tsang Yok-sing - and no doubt these gentlemen were amused and flattered by the notion. Certainly, it did them no harm.
Mrs Chan is another matter. I have two objections to Mrs Chan's name being added to lists of this kind. The first is that the prediction is clearly erroneous. Mrs Chan's chances of being the first Chief Executive of the SAR are about the same as Martin Lee's or mine.
