South China Morning Post - Hong Kong feedToday, 06:45
Former Liberal Party leader James Tien Pei-chun slammed Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying for a second time yesterday, criticising the city's leader for failing to come up with a solution to the current political deadlock.
Tien won praise last month after he asked Leung to consider quitting.
The impertinence cost him his seat on the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the mainland's top political advisory body. He then resigned as Liberal Party leader.
Asked on RTHK yesterday if he would reiterate his call for Leung to step down, Tien said: "Leung has already said he wouldn't resign … since he doesn't want to quit, [can he] please do something [to address the existing problems]? But the government so far has yet to do anything about it."
The pan-democrats' non-cooperation campaign in the Legislative Council, he said, made him worried that the government "would get nothing done in the next two years".
Tien said the government "should take the initiative to make the first step to communicate with the pan-democrats".
Chang Ka-mun, who was also a guest on the weekly programme, continues to serve as a member of the CPPCC. He blamed the "high-profile" approach student protesters took before their departure to Beijing for the fact they were denied entry to the mainland.
"The questions I asked [Beijing] 32 years ago were even more sensitive," Chang said. "It was a low-key visit but still there was dialogue."
In response, Scholarism leader Joshua Wong Chi-fung, who was also on the programme, said Beijing's reluctance to enter into dialogue with students, and not media coverage of the three student leaders' planned trip to the capital, had caused the current stalemate.
"Students want dialogue, but this incident shows that not only the Hong Kong government but also the central government refuses to talk," Wong said.
"If the youngsters can't even visit their own country, how can they be convinced to love the country?"
Separately, Dr Ken Chu Ting-kin, another CPPCC member, said he feared for the protesting students' professional futures after the demonstrations.
"What companies would hire such radical people? They could be affecting their career prospects," he said.
http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1641567/former-liberal-party-leader-james-tien-hits-out-cy-again -- gReader
