The Olympic Games is a sporting event that celebrates athletic prowess. The composition of the lineup for the Hong Kong torch relay on Friday may, therefore, surprise some people. Of the 120 members of our community chosen to carry the Olympic flame through city streets, fewer than half - just 55 - are past or present athletes. Of the remaining majority, there are 21 businesspeople, 13 politicians, eight entertainers and the rest are a mixed bag of community representatives, from teachers to doctors.
The lineup is a clear statement that the Olympics are about much more than sports. The reality is that since being conceived by the ancient Greeks, and resurrected in 1896, the event has come to embody a host of other attributes. Chief among these are unity, friendship, peace and happiness. The people chosen by the Hong Kong Sports Federation and Olympic Committee to bring the Olympic spirit here through the torch relay seem, on face value, to represent these facets. Fittingly, our only Olympic gold medallist, windsurfer Lee Lai-shan, will start the relay and cycling champion Wong Kam-po will end it. Along the way, it will be carried by Cheung Kong (Holdings) vice-chairman Victor Li Tzar-kuoi, actor Andy Lau, Legislative Council president Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai and Executive Council convenor Leung Chun-ying, among others.
In their different ways, these torch-bearers can be said to represent aspects of Hong Kong society. In addition to the world of sport, they reflect the role played by businesspeople in our city's success, the importance of the city's key institutions, as well as our affection for those who keep us entertained. It is a reasonably inclusive lineup. But when the background of the torch-bearers is looked at a little more closely, there the selection does not appear quite as representative as it may seem. It has a clear pro-establishment bias.
The three richest families in Hong Kong are represented. Former National People's Congress Standing Committee delegate, Tsang Hin-chi is among the torch-bearers. And there is a generous sprinkling of members of the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong (DAB). But, notably, no representatives from the pro-democracy camp have been selected. This may have arisen from the process by which some torch-bearers were nominated and selected. Some of the DAB torch-bearers are district councillors and have been selected to represent the districts they serve. That is understandable. But in the interests of the Olympic spirit tenet of unity, it would have been good to include some democrats, too. That would have helped make the lineup more representative.
Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen will not be running with the torch, contrary to earlier reports. Making Mr Tsang a torch-bearer had been proposed, but he sensibly declined. His position is much better suited to the role he will now play, attending the ceremony at the start of the relay.
The protests that have greeted the relay in some cities prompted officials to stress that politics has no part in the Games. International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge has gone to great pains to repeatedly make this point. Chinese organisers have backed him, calling the relay a 'journey of harmony'. Hong Kong's torch relay, with a reasonable number of athletes and torch-bearers drawn from different fields, will meet this description, although the net could have been cast even wider.