With Donald Tsang Yam-kuen reinstalled in the chief executive's office and having promised a green paper on constitutional development early in his new term, the scene is set for the next round of the battle over political reform. The parties opposing him have hastily scrabbled together a common platform and a united front.
The issue of constitutional development boils down to two points - the way we handle relations with the central government and with business interests.
In Beijing's eyes, these issues have long been settled under the concept of 'one country, two systems', and enshrined in the Basic Law, with the central government pledging to respect our capitalist society, plus democracy, western style.
This was designed to allay the fears of many in the early 1990s that after the handover there might be political struggles, and individual rights and private property would not be respected.
Now, 10 years after the handover, the central government appears perfectly happy with the status quo, imperfect as it is, and moving gradually towards universal suffrage.
The dissidents are, however, not so happy. It has nothing to do with individual rights and private property, which are properly guarded. The issue is their desire to rapidly change the system so the central government exists in name only, and business - now protected by functional constituencies - has to fight under a one-man, one-vote system.
For the record, I was against functional constituencies from the beginning, when our self-appointed 'democrats' were firmly behind the idea. Now, they are a fact of life and we must find a way to get rid of them peacefully.