Get ready for the intensification of a highly divisive 'them' vs 'us' political culture. On the continuing controversy over the Tamar development project, Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen accused those who question the planning of the Central waterfront of being 'anti-development'.
He also identifies political parties in terms of their degree of closeness to him and willingness to support Tamar.
Now an additional political label is coming into fashion among top officials: 'insiders' vs 'outsiders' - including those regarded as 'foreign spokesmen'. A Chinese-language newspaper recently reported the views of a top official, who said there were more and more 'foreign spokesmen' concerning themselves in local affairs - but that their real aim was to target mainland China.
The official, who was not named, gave the examples of minority-shareholder activist David Webb and myself getting elected to the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing board. That happened, he said, because of support from foreign investment funds.
The article said Mr Webb and I had no close connection with the 'sector', implying that we were outsiders in the official's eyes. Presumably, that was a reference to the fact that neither of us is a broker or connected to listed companies. One would have thought those were positive factors, but that was not the case.
The senior official obviously did not think it was relevant that Mr Webb was an active investor, or that I have a long-standing interest in public policy and used to be a commodities trader.
Mr Webb and I ran on a pro-market-reform ticket and won, but the official chose not to focus on what we explicitly stand for.
