Since the chief executive election in March, political parties, grass-roots groups and think-tanks have rolled up their sleeves and plunged into the fight for a place on the political stage. As the year draws to an end, all but the Liberal Party - the second-largest political party in the Legislative Council - have proved their political strength.
The pan-democracy camp, through Anson Chan Fang On-sang, won the recent Legislative Council by-election handsomely, and the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong proved its clout at the district level.
But, as a force representing the business community, the Liberal Party has shown signs of decline. Sensing its own downturn, the party recently criticised HSBC for its plan to raise the minimum cash withdrawal amount at ATMs from HK$100 to HK$300. The bank eventually backed down but, even so, the party's strategy was ill-conceived. Tactics like this are more likely to quicken its downfall than its resurgence.
In recent years, the Liberals have seemed like a ship that's strayed off course on the sea of an increasingly pluralised society. It showed promise only four years ago, winning the community's support and respect by opposing the 2003 anti-subversion legislation. Then it tried to build on that success by transforming itself into a widely based party, launching membership drives and shifting its pro-free-market platform closer to the political centre. But then the momentum dwindled. In this year's district council elections, it won only half the number of seats compared with the previous polls.
The party's central problem is confusion about its constituency. Since it represents business interests, it should be a natural ally of business owners and managers. Representing a centre-right political platform, it ought to cultivate support from those who favour free markets, fair competition and limited government intervention. Yet, the party often looks to pro-democracy groups and the DAB for hints on political action. The HSBC incident shows it could not stop itself from courting an electorate demanding welfare provisions - a contradiction of its core identity.
Yet the Liberals enjoy inherent advantages in a capitalist city inhabited by people who embrace liberty. The party leaders' key task is to articulate the values of its constituents, offer them a vision of the future and solutions to their major concerns. However, the leaders have apparently failed to transform the party into something similar to the Conservatives in Britain or America's Republicans; the Liberals have shrouded themselves in defeatism.