First, I must declare my interests before I wade in and write about the chief executive election, which is getting increasingly contentious as it enters the home stretch. I personally know neither Henry Tang Ying-yen nor Leung Chun-ying, the two major hopefuls, nor do I have any preference for either of them.
But the strange episode over their secretive visits to the central government's liaison office in Hong Kong last week, and the ensuing controversy over Tang's evasive response even though he was spotted meeting mainland officials, made interesting reading.
It all started on Wednesday when Apple Daily was splashed with photos showing Leung was driven to the liaison office on Tuesday. This came two days after Leung and his supporters suffered a setback in voting for the Election Committee that will select our city's next leader. His supporters won only 58 seats, way short of 150, the minimum number of nominations required to stand. Meanwhile the number of people expected to vote for Tang is estimated to be at least 200, giving him a comfortable lead. But there are hundreds of Election Committee members who are yet to declare their position and most of them are likely to follow the direction of the central government.
Given Beijing's decisive influence in the race, one imagines that Tang and Leung would have scrambled over each other to call upon the central government's liaison office and make sense of its thinking after the December 11 election.
That is exactly what they did on Tuesday, except that neither wanted to talk about it, as if the whole idea that they had close relations with the liaison office would go away in the eyes of Hong Kong people.
Even more bizarre is Tang's response when he was asked on Wednesday if he also went to the liaison office. He was seen visiting the office some time before Leung and he certainly read the newspaper report of Leung's visit on Wednesday morning before he went to a public function in which he and his aides certainly knew he would be grilled by reporters over the visit.
His well-prepared reply, while smiling in front of TV cameras, was that he had no idea why Leung went there and he had no plan to visit the liaison office. Later on Wednesday, when more reporters got wind of Tang's visit, he had a new line, saying that he 'would not comment on private activities'.