While hosting a radio phone-in programme, I made frequent scathing criticisms of former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa. That was because under Mr Tung's incompetent rule, Hong Kong people suffered severe hardship, collusion between the government and business was commonplace; and the gap between the rich and the poor kept widening. Donald Tsang Yam-kuen brought great changes when he replaced Mr Tung in 2005. Not only has the economy recovered, but the unemployment rate has dropped substantially. Share prices have reached new highs and the property market has become stable. Although constitutional reform plans were voted down in the Legislative Council and the West Kowloon Cultural District development scrapped, Mr Tsang has not made any major mistakes, nor has he made life a misery. I do not think anyone could do a better job, and I have no hesitation in supporting his re-election bid. Yet, the media - including the two best-selling newspapers and some radio talk shows - remain eager to lash out at the government or the chief executive to gain public support and achieve hidden objectives. It is true that the city's economic recovery has not benefited society as a whole. The gap between the haves and the have-nots remains wide, and the grievances of the grass roots unresolved. However, given the limitations of the existing political and economic systems, there is not much that Mr Tsang can do, as large enterprises and capitalists still enjoy absolute advantages in society. It is not fair to blame him for all social contradictions, or to pick on him for trifling matters that are of little importance to society. In campaigning for his re-election, Mr Tsang is liable to be criticised and ridiculed for almost everything he does and whatever he does not do. Some in the media may think they are helping to create a contested chief executive race. They have yet to realise that what they have done will not change the fact that the chief executive election is unfair and its result pre-determined. No matter how many nominations Civic Party candidate Alan Leong Kah-kit gets from the Election Committee, he is certain to be defeated by Mr Tsang. If democracy is really what we want to fight for, we should strive to change the political system, instead of making a fuss of trifles in the chief executive race. There is nothing wrong with asking for a contested race, but the pan-democrats should have a clear objective in mind - that their participation is to reveal the absurdity of the small-circle chief executive election. They should try to help the public to understand that under the existing political system, no matter how hard they try, they will not have the slimmest chance of winning, and a genuine democratic political system is thus necessary. In my opinion, to highlight the political significance of their participation in the election, the pan-democratic camp should have asked Democratic Party legislator Martin Lee Chu-ming to run for the top post, as he is widely hailed as the father of the democracy struggle for the Hong Kong people. The pan-democratic camp has accused Mr Tsang of refusing to formally declare his candidacy as early as possible, and of using public resources to campaign for re-election. The media has jumped on the bandwagon of making such unreasonable allegations against Mr Tsang. It should be noted that Mr Tsang has abided by all the rules. Moreover, if he could be blamed for taking advantage of his public position in his re-election bid, Mr Leong could be accused of using Legislative Council meetings as a platform to attack Mr Tsang and increase his chances of winning. For the sake of Hong Kong's democracy, the pan-democrats should seek to change the rules of the political game instead of focusing on the meaningless arguments in the chief executive race. Albert Cheng King-hon is a directly elected legislator
