Chief executive hopeful Henry Tang Ying-yen's reluctance to quit his campaign despite the growing uproar over the illegal basement in his family's Kowloon Tong mansion has made a mockery of Hong Kong's election system, a public forum heard yesterday. The incident clearly shows that Beijing has been orchestrating the election campaign and that Hongkongers' views are not being respected, according to City Forum speakers in Victoria Park yesterday. 'The main problem that Hong Kong faces today is that Hongkongers don't get to vote for our leader,' said Alan Leong Kah-kit, a Civic Party lawmaker who ran against Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen in the 2007 election. 'Didn't you find it funny that after such a big scandal, all Mr Tang did the next day was to visit mainland officials at the Beijing Liaison Office, instead of facing the people and explaining himself? 'That's because he knows where the source of his power is.' The chief executive election will be held on March 25. Only the Election Committee's 1,200-strong members, the majority of whom are pro-business and pro-Beijing, will get to choose the city's next leader. 'The election campaign has degenerated into a power struggle among different factions in the pro-Beijing camp,' Leong said. 'If it is a boxing match, Hongkongers are just spectators. We cannot choose the winner or decide who to send to fight on the stage.' A South China Morning Post poll released yesterday showed more than half of respondents wanted Tang to quit his campaign. However, Tang has refused to do so, and some of his supporters - including Joseph Yam Chi-kwong, the former head of the Monetary Authority - still pledge their full support for him. Veteran China-watcher Johnny Lau Yui-siu, a speaker at the forum, said Beijing was to blame for the city's political system. 'It was Beijing which had devised such an undemocratic system for Hong Kong,' he said. 'If the Election Committee members still vote for Tang and if he is elected as the chief executive despite all these scandals, it will be the clearest proof of the ridiculous nature of the 'small-circle' election,' said Lau in reference to Tang's basement, which was built without getting government approval. Tang has confirmed that he had visited the Beijing Liaison Office, but declined to give any details on what he discussed with mainland officials.
