The Liberal Party was quick to clear the air last week over a reportedly stormy encounter between its legislators and Chief Executive Donald Tsang Yam-kuen.
Rumour has it that the party's chairman, James Tien Pei-chun, pounded on a table before leading his colleagues in a mass walkout, following a sharp exchange of words with Mr Tsang over their political relations. But, according to insiders, there was no table in the hall at Government House, where the meeting took place.
Mr Tien has denied that the party talked about sharing power with the government. Nor, he said, would party colleagues be interested in taking up ministerial posts in the next administration.
The May 11 meeting was followed by Mr Tien's appearance on RTHK's Letter to Hong Kong radio show last Sunday, when he said: 'I support the chief executive forming a political alliance with the DAB [Democratic Alliance for the Betterment and Progress of Hong Kong] and the Liberal Party, and continuing to seek out a broader and more representative group of political allies to help put his policies into action.'
This, he noted, was because 'no government in the world can rule effectively without votes in the legislature'.
Set against Mr Tsang's high-profile political move to foster a partnership with the DAB, the Liberal Party's call for a broader political coalition reflects its growing feeling of anxiety about the political scene.
With the re-election of Mr Tsang looking almost certain, the business-oriented party seems to have woken up to the reality that it must find itself a place in the governing coalition.
