The unanimous vote last week by the pan-democratic camp against the government's proposal on constitutional reform was the saddest day for Hong Kong. Our city's democratic political culture has atrophied before it had a chance to sprout.
Democracy has been reduced to the phrase, 'timetable for full universal suffrage'.
The ruthless monopolising of political debate with this slogan betrayed contempt for the people of Hong Kong. It made a mockery of the lofty principles of democracy.
Nowhere on planet Earth will you find 'full democracy' and 'full universal suffrage', which were relentlessly advocated by the self-appointed democrats, and used by Democratic Party chairman Lee Wing-tat as grounds for rejecting the government's reform proposals.
For one, there is no true democracy in the modern world. Democracy is a system of government whereby citizens directly decide and participate in all decision-making processes, and take the responsibility to implement the policies.
Full democracy, for its part, means that every citizen has the right to vote directly on every issue or matter of government. This would mean every one of Hong Kong's some 4 million qualified voters casting their vote on every motion or bill that came up in the Legislative Council, on judicial cases that come up in the law courts, and on executive and administrative decisions.