For all practical purposes, the Basic Law experts have said that Hong Kong is simply not going to have universal suffrage, at least for decades ('Red flags raised on universal suffrage', April 28). Their requirement for 'community consensus' on reform, for example, gives the power of veto to interest groups that enjoy undue influence in the current structure, and which will never voluntarily give up their privileges.
This is a serious threat. These interest groups disproportionately represent the old Hong Kong economy: sectors run by cartels and sectors that benefit from the high land price policy and overspending on public works. They have little to gain, and maybe much to lose, from government action on competition, pollution, urban planning, tax reform, welfare reform and other policies that would help us move into the future.
Meanwhile, the interests of more modern and competitive industries, as well as social groups like the middle class or the elderly, are kept artificially low down the list of policy priorities.
If we cannot have universal suffrage, if we cannot have government with a popular mandate, what can we have? Beijing must come up with an alternative to the current political structure. Otherwise, it is condemning Hong Kong to stagnation as yesterday's interests and industries drive government policy, and younger, more energetic people and businesses seek a future elsewhere.
DOMINIC QUINNELL, Central
Just do it, Mr Tsang
The air in Discovery Bay was so bad the other day that we could not even see Lo Fu Tau, (the mountain peak behind Phase 2) from The Plaza. Sadly, it is increasingly difficult for us to placate ourselves by saying that at least the air isn't as bad as it is over there in Hong Kong or Kowloon.
