Letters to the Editor, May 10, 2014
The article by senior counsel Johnny Mok on the nomination process for the chief executive election is interesting ("Broad mandate", May 5).
However, it is marred by one critical oversight. He suggests the nomination committee must seek a capitalist balance of representation analogous to that provided in the Legislative Council by the functional constituencies, and so be dominated by forces that could actually deny a candidate, favoured by a majority of the Hong Kong population, the right to stand for election.
He forgets that the "gradual and orderly progression" foreseen by the Basic Law is intended to lead to the ultimate abolition of functional constituencies.
This is very sensible, as a major reason why there is conflict between the government and Hong Kong people, and a perception of "government-business collusion", is that vested interests are so well protected by the current system.
Why lock ourselves into a set-up for chief executive nomination that will perpetuate the very systemic problem we should be trying to eliminate?
The functional constituency system is actually dysfunctional. It diminishes competition and the power of the market; it diminishes the respect in which government is held; and it diminishes us all by continuing to align us with some of the worst states in history - Italy and Germany in the 1930s - which loved such systems.