Hong Kong, where are you at?

Tomorrow will be the Election day for our Chief Execute, with two candidates – the current Chief Executive Donald Tsang, and his challenger Alan Leong, who are to face the ‘election committee’.

Speculations among Hong Kong people revealed that Donald is the ‘appointed’ Chief Executive, and by allowing Alan Leong to compete with him, it seems that China is trying to be more open with the idea of liberating the election processes in Hong Kong.  Perhaps within a few decades we will be able to elect (note: not  select though, since China will still probably nominate their preferred candidates) our own executive.

What bothered me the most, of which Donald is still very proud of, is his slogan – ‘I will do this job well’.  If you apply a deeper semiotic analysis to it – it started with ‘I’ and the main subject is the ‘job’.  If ‘I’ is Donald and the ‘job’ is Hong Kong and our people, it is quite clear how he positions himself with us.  If the idea of democracy is to put people in charge, and if he sees the values in doing so, why is the slogan sounding so unpersuasive and unrelated to these ideas?

Considering democracy, in its ideal form, should presumably be pursued carefully – how we can push the envelop without rocking the boat, it is still going to take a long way.  I do not have the right to vote tomorrow, but I appreciate Alan Leong for coming out, knowing that this is a no-win battle, in trying and did encourage the idea of political diversity and respects to the intellects of Hong Kong people.

Just hope that the election committee will see that and respect his courage and do leave some votes for Alan!