Hong Kong's politicians and officials need to lose their bunker mentality

The democracy road in Hong Kong seems to have reached a dead end, at least for now. Both the local government and pan-democrats are sticking to their stands and making no serious effort to remove the road blocks.

The pan-democrats have pushed for unrealistic demands such as civic nomination and have unnecessarily antagonised Beijing with their statements. On the other hand, the chief executive, who has a constitutional obligation to accomplish the goal of universal suffrage in Hong Kong, has mostly taken steps to achieve the exact opposite result. More than anyone else, it is Leung Chun-ying's task to come up with a package that at least two-thirds of the Legislative Council members are willing to accept. Rather than doing so, he has led from the front in alienating pan-democrats. The most recent instance was to order government ministers and senior officials to boycott the Democratic Party's 20th anniversary dinner.

Proposals floated by influential academics have not been able to break the impasse, either. Consider, for example, the "none-of-the-above" voting option proposed by Professor Albert Chen Hung-yee, a member of the Basic Law Committee. Under his proposal, the election of the chief executive would be invalid if the "non-of the-above" votes exceeded 50 per cent of the total number polled. This proposal has not received an encouraging response, perhaps because it only offers a false sense of choice, for it is highly unlikely that more than half the voters would choose an "unknown and invisible" target on a negative platform.

Although the National People's Congress Standing Committee's August 31 decision is highly problematic, let us assume for now that it is sacrosanct. What could the government and pan-democrats do within this framework?

Rather than giving vague assurances that further reforms could be made to the framework after the 2017 election, Leung should formally approach the Standing Committee to provide a written road map for long-term democratic reforms. The current lack of trust over Beijing's intent is discouraging both legislators and Hongkongers from accepting the caged election model. More clarity about the future of functional constituencies in Legco would also help to remove suspicion about Beijing's real future intentions.

Alternatively, Leung could work on creating a mechanism under which at least one pan-democrat candidate is put forward by the nominating committee under Article 45. In fact, if the central authorities are clever, they should allow two pan-democrat candidates into the fray so that a pro-establishment candidate has a higher chance of winning the election. Beijing should have no fear: Hongkongers are unlikely to elect an "unpatriotic", "radical" or "confrontational" chief executive; anyway, in such an unlikely scenario, it could exercise its veto power.