Opinion | Public Eye with Michael Chugani: Albert Ho, conspiracy theories and pan-dem bananas

We give up. Public Eye has tried hard to understand what is going through Democratic Party legislator Albert Ho Chun-yan's mind. We have concluded that either it is too muddled to parse or he is hallucinating. Ho says he will resign from his "super seat" in the Legislative Council to trigger a citywide by-election that will double as a referendum to pressure Beijing on true democracy. But he will quit only after he and other pan-democratic legislators vote down the central government's restrictive political reform framework for Hong Kong. Surely, if he wants to pressure Beijing to change the framework, he should trigger the referendum before the framework is vetoed? Wrong, Ho says. He is afraid that if the referendum goes against him, pan-democratic legislators will face public pressure not to reject Beijing's framework. But don't the pan-democrats always say they speak for Hongkongers? If the referendum shows Hongkongers are willing to accept Beijing's model, isn't it the pan-dems' duty not to veto it? Humbug, Ho says. His logic is that Beijing will not listen regardless. But if Beijing would not listen before the framework was voted down, why would it listen after? Only Ho knows.

Hongkongers espouse conspiracy theories to the point of paranoia. Living in the shadow of Communist China has a lot to do with it. Hence, many believe the police used triads to harass Occupy Central protesters. Few challenged the notion that last year's knife attack on former Ming Pao editor Kevin Lau Chun-to and the firing of radio host Li Wei-ling were part of a campaign by Beijing and Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying to muzzle the media. The latest says the petrol bombs hurled at the home and office of Next Media founder Jimmy Lai Chee-ying were an attack on media freedom. But what seems more likely: that, or the idea that the bombs were revenge by triads whose Mong Kok businesses suffered during Occupy? While we're at it, why not also assume Lai sympathisers orchestrated the attacks to attract comparisons with the Paris terror killing of Charlie Hebdo cartoonists and before his imminent arrest for his Occupy involvement?

Pan-democratic legislators love to show off for the cameras whenever top officials talk policy in the Legislative Council. But throwing bananas is old hat. Even hurling a glass has lost its shock value after radical legislator Wong Yuk-man threw one at Leung Chun-ying in July. The yellow umbrella gets a yawn - we saw it last week when pan-democrats carried them in a clownish walkout while Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor launched a public consultation on political reforms. But Leung will be delivering his annual policy address today, so a show is in order. If bananas, glasses and umbrellas fetch yawns, what else is there? Here's a novel idea: why not sit and listen to what Leung has to stay? Is that not the true spirit of democracy?