Political Animal
Something's in the air as ATV puts political interview off for a week
There's no smoke without fire, and the appearance in the ATV Newsline slot on Sunday of an old anti-smoking programme instead of a rather more political interview about the chief executive election has pro-democracy activists sniffing for clues.
The scheduled programme would have involved Democratic Party chairman Albert Ho Chun-yan and Allen Lee Peng-fei of Anson Chan Fang On-sang's core group, but it was pulled at the last minute because of problems in 'the quality of the recording'.
The head of ATV's English news, Michael Chugani, who hosted the programme, and Mr Lee both said they did not know what went wrong.
'Michael Chugani even alerted me to watch the programme because Allen Lee criticised me for not supporting [challenger] Alan Leong Kah-kit ... It must have been something political,' The Frontier's Emily Lau Wai-hing said.
A spokesman for the channel said the sound problem had been spotted too late to be remedied in time so the old programme had to be re-run.
'The problems have now been resolved and it will be shown this Sunday at seven, without the need for a re-recording,' he said.
Tsang echoes Mao and Apple Daily
What is the connection between Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, Mao Zedong and Lau Sai-leung?
Mr Lau, the only one who needs an introduction here, is a former Democratic Party researcher and now a full-time member of the Central Policy Unit.
Chairman Mao's words were recalled last week when Mr Tsang identified '10 major relationships' in a diagnosis of Hong Kong's problems. Its resemblance to a speech Mao gave in 1956 was striking, especially as Mr Tsang is not known to be a fan of Mao's works.
Enter Mr Lau, who also wrote a piece headlined 'Roadmap for universal suffrage: 10 major relationships in the SAR' in Apple Daily in November 2005. Mr Lau joined the CPU last year.
DAB acquires expensive tastes
Whether the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong has a future is in the eyes of the beholder. Its aspirations for broadening its appeal beyond the grass roots is beyond doubt, however. Emboldened by the success of a party hosted at a wine cellar near Lan Kwai Fong for foreign consulate corps and media last year, the DAB's foreign affairs committee has provided a taste of modern Chinese art last week when it hosted its annual spring reception at an art gallery at Taikoo Shing. Who said politics is always tasteless and boring?
