Left Field: How chief executive can win some friends through sport
Under-fire chief executive should push ahead with Kai Tak sports hub as a first step towards silencing some of his critics
It's in our nature to believe the grass is always greener elsewhere. And these feelings peak at the turn of a new year. On New Year's Day, tens of thousands of people took part in a protest calling for the resignation of Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying. And one of the main calls from the demonstrators was for more democracy.
Coming from Sri Lanka, I can safely vouch for the fact that democracy is not always as good a thing as it is made out to be. The one-man, one-vote system is not suitable for all countries, especially in the third world, where politicians abuse their powers. The masses are fooled by promises - almost never kept - and not wise enough to exercise their vote the way it should be.
Dishonest politicians rule roughshod over the electorate. Corrupt governments use the power and machinery of the state to extend their hold. Democracy is just a byword for anarchy and misrule. What elections do is put in place dictators with the only intent of the ruling elite being to see their boots filled by their children and grandchildren for generations to come.
It took the United States, the land of the free, more than 200 years to get the democratic system in smooth running order. The British parliamentary system has lasted longer. Both are examples of successful democracies. But there are far more examples of failed democratic states. Africa is rife with them. From Russia to Venezuela, and closer to home, from the Philippines to Thailand, we are witnessing countries that once seemed to be heading towards democracy now moving in the other direction.
So why does Hong Kong pine for a system that can be abused? And wasn't it a contradiction that some protestors in the march last Tuesday carried British colonial-era flags? What do the people want? Is it democracy or to go back to the old days, when we were ruled by a governor who answered to the queen?
There was little in the way of democracy those days, but the system worked fine enough. Since the handover in 1997, the central government has, for the most part, left us alone. But the people are impatient to have their voices heard and are now clamouring for the right to elect their own leaders. Let's hope they pick the right ones.