Why HK needs good table manners

IT IS time for Hong Kong's politicians to pick up the students' baton and carry forward their campaign to be heard. Not because the protests are grist to the pan-democrat mill and offer a temptingly large stick to beat the government with, but because the democratisation of Hong Kong is in everyone's interest. It is a process that must be handled in a bipartisan manner for it to succeed.

The movement that attracted broad support is becalmed for lack of direction, if not resolve, as it aims to strengthen the hand of all Hongkongers in having a say in their future by electing the right candidate as the next chief executive. The sticking point is not universal suffrage (which Beijing has accepted), but the manner in which the candidates will be selected by a "broadly representative" council.

Having made a dramatic, if symbolic, gesture that the world has noted, it is time for the students to withdraw to their classrooms with this victory intact, handing over the dialogue to more experienced, and older, hands. Stretching things out will only invite a bruising that will render it a Pyrrhic victory at best or a crushing failure if public opinion turns.