It’s nothing new that Beijing doesn’t like elections – but apparently it seems they dislike mock ones too.
From the SCMP:
“Beijing has expressed concern that a plan to launch a community referendum to gauge the public’s view on who should be the next chief executive would undermine Donald Tsang Yam-kuen’s credibility”
In other words, if someone else gets “elected”, which is possible, then the presumed lack of support for Donald Tsang would undermine his role as chief executive when someone else should be there instead. Well gosh – isn’t that the point of elections? In a democratic society you pick the leader and they lead with the mandate of the people. That Hong Kong people should be denied the right to pick their leader is insulting enough – that Beijing should then complain about a non-binding poll taking place is just ludicrous.
Cyd Ho Sau-lan, organiser of the project, was quoted to comment that:
“…the best way for them to get an acceptable result would be to convince the public that the person Beijing supports is good”
- I couldn’t agree more. It would be far more constructive for Beijing to try and gain support for the candidate they’re fielding than to waste time complaining about opposition figures. Granted some may see the poll as a pointless exercise that would achieve nothing except create discontent, but I believe instability won’t be easy to come by in Hong Kong and that on the contrary such a poll would send a strong signal to the government.
Of course some may fear that the poll would give a mandate to Donald Tsang, should he win. But, if this is the case then I say congratulations to him – and likewise to the democrats, they should try harder next time to win the support of the people.