Candidates seeking election as chief executive next year might be allowed to spend an extra HK$3.5 million on their campaigns, the South China Morning Post reported last week. Each would then be able to spend up to HK$13 million. The question the article did not ask was: what for?
It's hardly a secret that our next chief executive - like the two before him or her - will be chosen by Beijing, with the election committee doing its bidding, so why go through with the charade of pretending the other candidate(s) will stand a chance?
Given the fates of Messrs Tung and Tsang, you can see why the power brokers up north might want to find out how popular each candidate is before anointing one, but surely a slick, well-funded publicity campaign will muddy those waters rather than give a clearer picture of what might develop over the years.
Perhaps the money would be better spent on a poll asking all Hongkongers who they'd prefer to lead them (no, no, bear with me ...), BUT, with the explicit understanding that the results will not be made public. That way, Beijing could gauge the popularity of whoever runs for CE while the people of Hong Kong would know their voice had been heard, if not necessarily acted upon.
