Opposition parties never want to see a strong government for, as a general rule, the stronger the government the more difficult it is for the opposition to win the people's support. They can hardly be expected, therefore, to support any reform proposal intended to improve the government's performance.
This is why the pan-democrats are saying 'no' to the government's plan to expand the political appointment system. It was introduced by former chief executive Tung Chee-hwa in 2002, under the name 'accountability system for principal officials'.
As Mr Tung's chief secretary at the time, Donald Tsang Yam-kuen was probably the key designer of the scheme. Few would know the nuts and bolts of running the government better than the veteran civil servant. He must have realised, even more clearly than his boss, the conflicts involved in the duties of senior civil servants in an increasingly politicised environment.
The 'accountability system' consisted of taking the posts of principal officials out of the civil service system and converting them into political appointments. Mr Tsang and others believed that, as Hong Kong moved towards full democracy, it was necessary to build up a tier of politically appointed officials to complement the work of the permanent and professional team of politically neutral civil servants.
Forming a political tier with the 14 principal officials was only the first step. The system had to be further developed if it was to function effectively.
Mr Tsang started to make arrangements for taking the appointment system forward as soon as he became chief executive in 2005. In his inaugural policy address in October 2005, Mr Tsang claimed that the community had accepted the accountability system and looked forward to its further consolidation and improvement.
The most pressing need at the time, he said, was to strengthen support for the principal officials to undertake more work of a political nature. Accordingly, he proposed to create within the government a small number of positions 'dedicated to political affairs', 'to support the chief executive and the principal officials in their political work'.
