Mike Rowse has a somewhat humorous but insightful (and also a little provocative) article on the lack of leadership in Hong Kong and how that is driving the stalemate between the OC movement and the government:
Hongkongers look in vain for the leadership they need | South China Morning Post
Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor is viewed favourably by most people, or at least was until recently, though her standing may have taken a hit after the rather wooden performance in the debate with students. But one reason we are in this present pickle is that she refused to meet them in the first place during the consultation phase of the political reform process. And not only the students: other moderate democratic groups were also pointedly ignored.
What kind of leader sets out on a high-profile public consultation exercise, but deliberately leaves out whole swathes of the community? And then presents a report to the central government, pretending that it is a fair reflection of the community's views.
How about the three wise men who dreamed up the whole idea of Occupy Central in the first place? Just where are associate professor Benny Tai Yiu-ting, Reverend Chu Yiu-ming and Dr Chan Kin-man anyway? Well, the short answer is they were gazumped in their own civil disobedience movement by the students. By their own admission, they have lost control of the situation and are not in a position to steer the occupation anywhere. How could we present them to our visitors as people of influence?
Which leaves us with the Hong Kong Federation of Students. But they have no end game, no exit strategy. Their "plan", if it can be called such, seems to consist of sitting in the streets until something turns up. They should have quit two weeks ago while they still had the initiative, with the unspoken threat to return if necessary.
Well, Beijing has no intention of changing course, and the Hong Kong government doesn't seem to have the brain power to break the impasse. So I am afraid that unless the youngsters have a sudden brainwave, we are stuck where we are.
But I have an idea of my own: why not just ask the little green men if they would like to take over running the whole damn show?