THE selection of the chief executive of the future Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) should be a very significant news story, as it has a direct bearing on a successful start for the SAR. Sadly, the timid and self-censoring news media have turned the coverage into a propaganda exercise for the Chinese Communist government.
The aspirations and anxieties of the Hong Kong people have been rudely brushed off. Instead, members of the public are being given a daily diet of the pontifications of Chinese officials and business tycoons.
Almost from the word go, the Chinese Government indicated that the power to select the chief executive (CE) lay with Beijing. At best it would only listen to a handful of rich people in the colony.
From then onwards, the news media took it upon itself the task of shaping its coverage to Beijing's design.
As a result, the question of how the chief executive should be selected was hardly ever discussed because media bosses have long accepted that this person would be hand-picked by Beijing.
It then follows that any suggestion of democratic election is idle speculation that must be snuffed out.