Hong Kong chief executive aspirants should stop being coy – and declare their candidacy

Alice Wu says the fevered speculation over who would run in the upcoming chief executive election – and the shadow play in the background between the major players – is draining, and must stop

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Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying has announced he will not seek re-election. Photo: Sam Tsang

Published: 8:00am, 11 Dec 2016Updated: 10:47am, 15 Dec 2016

Now that the so-called ABC campaign – “Anyone but CY” – is a non-issue, how long can seemingly non-committal potential candidates for the 2017 chief executive election hold out? The charade of pretending not to be a chief executive wannabe is tiresome. It’s outright deceptive, in fact, when aspirants do little to douse the flames that fuel the speculation.

With Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying ruling himself out of the race, there are still two possible candidates holding on to their government jobs. Yet another has actively created noise for speculation, scheduling “an important event” this Thursday.

The public has been left out in the cold long enough, and the back-stabbing behind the scenes – all done apparently to win Beijing’s “blessing” – has gone on for far too long. Hong Kong is politically fatigued, and our patience has worn thin. It would not be untrue to say that a lot of us can’t wait for the chief executive election to be over.

Regina Ip is expected to announce her candidacy at a rally this week.

Former Hong Kong No 2 is first big gun to support Regina Ip for top job

Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai, the former Legislative Council president and current member of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, recently looked into her crystal ball to predict that the upcoming fight would be ungentlemanly. We expect people to get down and dirty, just as happened five years ago. With more rumoured contenders this time, this election has all the signs of degenerating into something bloodier. Many would say that it already is.

What is worse, all the posturing has not even been done for our benefit

The political storm over snubbing and then not snubbing lawmakers was the ugliest behind-the-scenes politics we’ve seen. It isn’t so much that we can’t stomach rough play in politics. Rather, we don’t care for the constant reminder that our future is being held hostage by the whims and fancies of the few.

When evasive possible candidates play cloak and dagger on the public’s dime, it is time for Beijing to call a “time out”, and for the rest of us to scream, “Enough already! Just quit your government job, get off the public payroll and get on with the campaigning!” If you are going to be more focused on playing “red-light, green-light” with each other instead of focusing on the work of governing Hong Kong, then go and play elsewhere.

Political rivalry between CY Leung and John Tsang sharpens over latest Legco oath drama

By doing this, they are not serving this city “conscientiously, dutifully, in full accordance with the law, honestly and with integrity,” as they vowed to do in their oaths when they took office.