People such as the Alliance for True Democracy's convener Joseph Cheng Yu-shek, "political scientist", leave us flabbergasted by saying that the method of electing our Chief Executive in 2017 has to abide by international standards. Precisely which international standards are they talking about?

Do they mean universal suffrage the American way, where citizens vote for the president and vice-president indirectly by casting ballots for the electors, and the electors in turn directly elect the president and vice-president? Or do they mean democracy British style, where the position of prime minister is not established by any constitution or law but exists only by long-established convention, which stipulates that the monarch must appoint as prime minister the person most likely to command the confidence of the House of Commons?

Even Cheng would not dare to accept US democracy as pure, as we vividly recall how the US High Court made George W. Bush president in 2000 despite the fact that Al Gore received more popular votes. If the US and the UK do not have pure democracy after all these years, what's the urgency and necessity for us to have it by 2017? The truth is that one-size-fits-all 100 percent pure universal suffrage is non-existent. That's bad news for the Alliance for True Democracy.

The above is just the tip of an iceberg of the dissidents' double standards, many of which have been exposed in recent incidents.

Outraged by the fact the forum on universal suffrage organized by the Alliance for True Democracy on April 7 failed to include any speakers from the pro-establishment camp, Chan Kong-man and others from the Voice of Loving Hong Kong, joined the forum to express their dissenting views. They asked Cheng how much time was allocated for Q&A in the 75-minute program scheduled with six to seven dissident lawmakers, but were ignored. When they insisted on an answer, Cheng claimed that the forum couldn't be continued in an orderly manner and called the whole thing off.

Photos taken by the press during the forum showed few people in attendance. Half of the participants were from the Voice of Loving Hong Kong. This explains why Cheng was reluctant to open the floor for questions - it would have revealed some inconvenient truths, such as having fewer supporters than they claim.

A forum for one-way dissemination of one-sided opinion is at odds with the ideal of true democracy, but the dissidents' hypocrisy lies much deeper than that. If they consider Voice of Loving Hong Kong members' behavior rude and unacceptable, they should have also condemned their own forum crusher "Long Hair" Leung Kwok-hung. After all, it is the dissidents who pioneered the technique of booing speakers whom they dislike into silence, a technique Leung pushed to the extreme when he stormed into a consultation on a by-election mechanism in the Science Museum two years ago and evicted government officials from the stage.

Recent actions by groups such as the Voice of Loving Hong Kong are beginning to yield results, as people start to see these self-appointed democrats for what they really are. More importantly, as the patriotic camp's organizations and members are rapidly evolving, we are witnessing a few promising young leaders.

People like Chan Kong-man are not the rich and successful professionals, investment bankers and such that one usually sees in the pro-establishment camp, or indeed in Hong Kong politics, but they resonate with a wide range of people more positively than our old elites.

The balance of power in the city's politics is slowly shifting as groups such as the Voice of Loving Hong Kong, Caring Hong Kong Power and the Hong Kong Youth Care Association increase in number. The Hong Kong Youth Care Association's ongoing banner war with the Falun Gong sect reminds us of a very important fact: things were easy for the dissidents in the past only because others were too tolerant. But enough is enough, and the silent majority will no longer be silent.

As these groups continue to attract smarter people and more resources, the dissidents' double standards will be more fully exposed, and a tipping point will soon be reached where we will all become a little bit more mature than before.

The author is a member of the Commission on Strategic Development.

(HK Edition 04/16/2013 page1)