From his lofty moral high ground, the one and only justification for Alan Leong Kah-kit to enter the chief executive race is to make a good contest out of what the pan-democrats regard as a bad system. But, from the very start, he seems to be heading in the wrong direction.
Mr Leong claimed to be the candidate of the pan-democrats, and acted like it - writing letters to mainland officials for appointments. But he will not be a candidate until he manages to get at least 100 nominations from the Election Committee, whose members will be chosen in a poll on December 10.
He is not a candidate nominated by the pan-democratic camp: except within his own Civic Party, there has been no democratic process to nominate him. And quite a few pan-democrats have gone on record to say they'll boycott the election. How can he claim he represents the pan-democrats? What he did was get an undemocratic head start in the race.
Hey, lawmaker and barrister Leong, please 'walk your talk' - and at least follow the rules and procedures. You are supposed to be here to build a democratic process, not to sabotage it in its infancy.
Another requirement of a good election contest is a creditable platform. Even if there is absolutely no hope of Mr Leong being elected chief executive, he and his promoters insisted that he would give us a good campaign platform - one that provides an alternative model for the development of Hong Kong, as perceived by the pan-democrats.
But I must warn readers: should they look at Mr Leong's platform on the internet, they will be in for a great disappointment. It is about as good as a secondary-school pupil's essay - except that the English is a bit better.
If this is all the Civic Party and the pan-democrats have to offer, my advice to them is to drop out of the race before they disgrace themselves.
