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Ambrose Leung

Chris Yeung

Tycoon breaks silence on election to hail acting chief's leadership qualities

Hong Kong's richest man, Li Ka-shing, yesterday gave a glowing endorsement of Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, saying the acting chief executive had all the right qualities for the top job, including 'noble character'.

The strong backing came as two major political parties said they were considering a joint ticket to challenge the likely bid of Mr Tsang in the July 10 chief executive election.

Openly backing Mr Tsang for the first time yesterday, Mr Li said the acting chief had the qualities required to lead Hong Kong.

'The most important quality a chief executive candidate should have is a noble character. The second is of course the capability to govern,' the chairman of Cheung Kong (Holdings) said.

'Thirdly, the person should be impartial and selfless, and work for Hong Kong's prosperity and stability with all his effort. Not only should he improve Hong Kong's situation, he should make Hong Kong's long-term future better than today.

'Of course Mr Tsang has all these qualities,' he said. 'I will support those who have these qualities to become the chief executive, although not only one person has these qualities.'

Mr Li sidestepped questions on whether he would like to see others challenge Mr Tsang, but said people without a 'noble character' should not run.

'Not all of the people with the intention to run have these qualities,' he said, but refused to name any names.

Meanwhile, Liberal Party chairman James Tien Pei-chun  said he held initial talks a few days ago with Tsang Yok-sing,  former chairman of the Democratic Alliance for Betterment of Hong Kong, on the feasibility of a joint candidate.

Mr Tien said the pro-government parties shared the view that political parties should play a bigger role in policy formation.

'As political parties, we should consider forming our own government through bidding for the post of the chief executive.'

The development followed the announcement on Monday by Financial Secretary Henry Tang Ying-yen - a favourite of the Liberals - that he would not run in the July election.

Donald Tsang, who has not yet declared his candidacy, is widely seen as the leading, if not only, contender to serve the remaining term of former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa. The DAB has remained non-committal on Mr Tsang's possible bid.

Mr Tien said the parties had reservations about whether the top post should go to a candidate with a civil service background.

'Why not give people a choice?  There's no need to have an election if Beijing simply opts for a candidate with high popularity who then gets elected uncontested.

'We believe participation of parties in the chief executive election will help improve the executive-legislature relationship. Parties also have their own policy platform. There will be better continuity of policies,' he said.

Mr Tien said the party did not have a candidate in mind after Mr Tang's decision, but 'if Tsang Yok-sing wants to run, we will certainly support him'.

The DAB holds about 90 votes in the 800-member Election Committee.

Mr Tien said the two parties had less than 200 members in total.

'We won't run for the post just for the sake of running. We will monitor closely the views of people and Beijing.

'On the face of it, Beijing has not yet indicated her preference, although I agree they want Donald Tsang to do the job.

'Yes, the election has come much earlier than expected. But Donald faces the same problem of not having enough time to prepare for the election.'

DAB chairman Ma Lik said last night his party would like to see more candidates come forward, but it  had not been approached by any candidate so far.

A source close to Beijing said the central government faced the dilemma that it did not want a repeat of the uncontested election of Mr Tung in 2002, but feared a strong challenge to Donald Tsang.

'If a challenger manages to win nearly 300 votes in the election, Donald Tsang's legitimacy would be in question even if he won,' the source said.



Li Ka-shing gives backing to Tsang