Money talks, they say, and in Hong Kong people with money talk very loudly indeed. And nowadays, they seem to talk mainly about why people with less money should not be allowed to vote. Indeed, some of them seem to believe that they should be accorded a monopoly in the political realm, despite the democratic aspirations of the vast majority of the Hong Kong people. (A recent survey commissioned by Civic Exchange and conducted by the Hong Kong Transition Project showed that 88 per cent want constitutional reform, with 81 per cent supporting direct election of the chief executive). The rest of us, in the mean time, should be content to be their loyal subjects and not question their wisdom or their legitimacy.
The popular slogan of these anti-democratic tycoons (quite a few of whom are citizens of western democracies) is opposition to 'free lunches' that supposedly will result from universal suffrage. Such antediluvian attitudes make it possible for advocates of democracy in Hong Kong to be labelled 'radicals'. These tycoons would not dare make such statements anywhere else.
So it is perhaps appropriate that Lee Wing-tat, vice-chairman of the Democratic Party, has called on representatives of the business and commercial sector to give up their 'political free lunches', upon which they have been feasting for well over a century.
Mr Lee is right. During the British colonial period, when there was no democracy, business leaders in Hong Kong were appointed to key advisory boards and committees. The most successful were given the biggest plums - seats on the legislative and executive councils. At a time when all seats were appointed, the British chose those who were successful in business to be their top advisers. These business leaders - tycoons - found that political power came hand in hand with economic success. This is something they are unwilling to give up.
When business leaders ask to be given a substantial portion of seats in the legislature, what is that if not a political free lunch? And when they ask to be assigned a certain number of seats on the Election Committee, what is that if not a political free lunch?
If business leaders want to become political leaders as well, they should fight for it, just like anyone else. They should form their own political party - or join an existing one - and go out and campaign. Expecting privileged treatment is nothing more or less than asking for a free lunch.
