IT is more sickening than baffling for one to witness Emily Lau's private member's bill for a fully directly-elected Legislative Council being defeated only by the abstention of the Meeting Point's four Legco members. It was even more puzzling to hear Martin Lee condoning such an act of cowardice by saying that different views in respect of democracy should be respected.
Mr Lee, it is one thing to respect the freedom of speech and of opinion, it is quite another thing to form a ''Democratic Party'' with a party which would dream of forsaking universal suffrage in the name of respect for the Basic Law. In order not to mislead the public or insult their intelligence, and in all fairness to the participation of the Meeting Point in the ''Democratic Party'', I beseech the preparatory committee of the party to seriously consider modelling its name after the Democratic Alliance for the Betterment of Hong Kong, and change its name to the Democratic Party for the Respect of the Basic Law.
Members of Meeting Point, just in case you are ignorant of this: democracy in its truest sense entails some inherent and basic elements including, but not limited to, universal suffrage, which is neither a negotiable privilege nor a tradeable gift, but a right of every citizen.
This may not be palatable to politicians such as you, but for the sake of decency and sanity, please do not fool the public anymore by proclaiming yourself to be democrats. JOHNNY CHAN YUE-CHOW Pokfulam
