Liang Hongfu

Diverse ideas are a part of HK society

By Liang Hongfu (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-03-22 06:04

The flurry of public protests and negative press reports in Hong Kong seems to have stunned many opinion leaders and social commentators.

Why is the community so jittery when the economy is recovering, property and stock prices rising and the unemployment rate falling?

That was the question posed to Donald Tsang, the SAR's (special administrative region) chief executive, in one of his frequent public appearances. Captured on television, Tsang said with a smile that it was perfectly normal in Hong Kong for people to express their own views in ways that they saw fit. It was up to the government, he said, to adequately and effectively explain its policies to win public support.

His political style, augmented by his youthful demeanour and sunny smile, has won him persistently high public ratings in the polls. Despite his popularity, Tsang has been criticized by ultra-conservative politicians who believe that the chief executive of Hong Kong's administration-led government should have the look of a stern father-figure, who can be moved to breath fire at the slightest hint of disagreement.

These political dinosaurs tend to dismiss efforts by the government to win public support for policies as spin. In their fossilized minds, public opinion is nothing more than the invention of unscrupulous politicians hell-bent on winning votes.

Fortunately for Hong Kong, the diversity of thought, style and opinion that is the defining characteristic of this vibrant society and provides the major driving force behind the service economy has continued to thrive. Frequent public protests and negative press reports are a reflection of the willingness of the people to speak up because they care about Hong Kong, not a show of defiance arising from deep-seated discontent.

The question to ask is not why the community has become so jittery, but rather why the peaceful and civilized expression of dissatisfaction by various groups of people has caused so much unease among some of Hong Kong's top opinion leaders?

One so-called public affairs consultant and political commentator recently wrote a newspaper commentary, saying that rampant public criticism has subjected Hong Kong's civil service to "a kind of cultural revolution in the past few years." As a result, many civil servants have lost "pride" in their job.

The civil service of Hong Kong, once ranked among the best in the world, is now gripped by a sense of inertia, she opined. "Do less and make few mistakes" seems to have become their motto," she wrote.

Wow. That is quite a claim.

I believe that this and many other political commentators have seriously underestimated the mettle of our highly disciplined and well-trained team of civil servants.

Some of us may think that our civil servants, as a whole, are grossly over-paid and excessively pampered. We also complain, sometimes bitterly, about what we see, rightly or wrongly, as oversights in the planning of public projects, collusion with big business at the expense of the public good, incompetence in managing public assets and various bureaucratic excesses that we find objectionable.

Unsurprisingly the majority of complaints are picked up by newspapers, as they make for good copy. As the saying goes, good news doesn't sell newspapers, and most newspapers in Hong Kong are commercial enterprises that need to make money. Their reporters are trained to dig out the news behind the copious amount of propaganda materials churned out everyday by the government, big business and numerous other institutions.

As a native son, Tsang seems to have the confidence and skill to play the local media game. Instead of denouncing the "messengers" who have delivered so much "negative" news to the public, he appears to welcome the challenge and, as some observers suggest, he might even enjoy employing a little bit of his own "spin" every now and then.

As such, Tsang is widely perceived to have personified a style of government that is more in line with the expectations of the Hong Kong people. Instead of surrounding himself with like-minded advisors, Tsang has included at least one former member of the opposition camp to his inner circle of aides.

Sceptics may scoff at that appointment as nothing more than an empty gesture of goodwill. But many others consider this as a signal that the Tsang administration is strong and confident enough to rule a vibrant society that thrives on diversity.

Email: jamesleung@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 03/22/2006 page4)