I refer to 'A steady rot?' by Sin-ming Shaw (August 20).
Mr Shaw implicitly suggests that the democratic process in Hong Kong has gone down the drain since 1997 and universal suffrage would cure most, if not all, its social, economic and political ills.
First, Hong Kong has always been a free society, but it was anything but democratic under British rule. Popular voting in any form was often rejected as 'de-stabilising' to society. One governor, confronted with a contentious issue, stated that the only person he had to answer to was the Queen of England.
Second, assuming that the central government allows universal suffrage in Hong Kong, who, and which party, should we vote in as the next government? This system presumably would produce a government of and for the people. But is there an individual or party that would truly represent the Hong Kong people?
All the serious players belong to parties. On one side is the Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong, which toes the government line faithfully.
On the other side is the so-called 'pro-democracy' camp, which rejects anything that is 'Chinese' regardless of merit, and went as far as soliciting foreign nations' opinions on Hong Kong security issues that are apparently internal. It comes across as more anti-China than democratic.
