For a chief executive election widely expected to be a non-event, the past two weeks have certainly put us through disorienting political vertigo. But for all the dramatic back-stabbing since the Ides of February, along with the campaign mud-slinging, scandal frenzy, and the psycho-drama of a possible fourth or fifth contender, we find ourselves back at square one.
In an anticlimax, we now have the original three candidates - two who are 'acceptable' to Beijing and one who is running merely to highlight the 'small-circle election'.
So, have we come full circle? Do we now expect the people to twiddle their thumbs until they hear the election results on the evening news on the 25th? Or do we now have more to think about, regardless of what the result may be?
Lots of theories are circulating about whether Beijing plans to stick to 'Plan A' and elect Henry Tang Ying-yen, or if it will 'guide' Election Committee members to make sure Leung Chun-ying wins. For all the hype over an actual 'contest', to know that Beijing is still controlling the result really makes a mockery of the entire electoral process.
Given all the talk about Hong Kong not being ready for universal suffrage, one wonders whether it is Beijing that is not ready. By 2017, there can be no Plan A or B; everyone, including Beijing, will have to go on the roller-coaster ride otherwise known as election campaigns, and live with the result.
What has transpired in Hong Kong politics over the past month reminds me of what former British member of parliament Alan Clark said about 'friends' in politics: there are none. Politicians are 'all sharks circling, and waiting, for traces of blood to appear in the water'. It sounds a bit cynical but Clark may be right after all.
