HK Observer | King Arthur, the roundtable and white elephants

Robert Carroll

The appointment of a new deputy head of the University of Hong Kong has reappeared in the news again, with more leaks from the University Council meeting on the subject and an official HKU alumni meeting on the issue. At the latter, alumni voted overwhelmingly against the appointment of the Chief Executive’s apparent choice of deputy head, Arthur Li Kwok-cheung. Nicknamed King Arthur, for his high-handed manner while Vice Chancellor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, he has further antagonized many in the male student body with his condescending remarks. Among these, he controversially claimed that their reason for attending demonstrations during Occupy was only to pick up girls. He was recently appointed as one of the knights of HKU’s roundtable, the Council.
Ironically, what emerged from the leaked recordings of the University Council meeting was that Lo Chung-Mau, one of the most vocal opponents to the University’s first choice, Johannes Chan Man-Mun, said that he was not a unifier but instead that the famously abrasive King Arthur is!  Really? Anyway, who stoked the fires of divisiveness?
Beginning as an appointment vetted through the usual time-tested means, the process was smooth and without controversy but has now, unfortunately, become a battlefield. This only eventuated after a deluge of articles – several hundred no less –  in the local communist newspapers, which slammed the former outstanding dean of  HKU’s Law Faculty  for his academic record! That the council, the university’s highest decision-making body was reported to have been under intense pressure to reject the favored candidate, has led to great dismay among the body of HKU’s teaching staff, who subsequently voted in three liberal scholars to the council, sending an unequivocal message in favor of academic independence.
On the one hand, the government splurges on infrastructure to a dubious value. On the other, the purse strings are tightened for education, health, clean air and aged care.
Shouldn’t we get our priorities right?
The latest announcements – or should that be concealments – about further extensive cost overruns for the Hong Kong-Macau-Zhuhai bridge, and the express rail to Guangzhou, highlight how big-budget, politically-motivated projects get fast nods, while more pressing and important issues which affect society as a whole, are neglected.
The saga of the endlessly delayed bridge has been going on for decades. It’s hard to believe now that there was once hope for a pre-Macau handover 1999 completion date in the early days. The government’s latest completion date is 2017, up from 2016. Based on history and the latest news, it’s probably wishful thinking and may be a ploy to get another funding top-up. If, as some engineers have said, the base of an artificial island supporting the bridge has shifted more than predicted, and is desirable, it raises doubts about a 2017 completion date and for staying on budget, even with the extra cash now being demanded.
Many observers doubt whether the bridge will serve its initial intended purposes: to bring significant extra cargo business to Hong Kong’s airport and to stimulate the Western Zhuhai economy. Nor is traffic expected to be high or are revenues expected to be generated anywhere near cost recovery. One recent estimate calculated every vehicle trip being subsidized many times the tolls that could be charged.
Physically linking the two SARs directly with Guangdong sends a political signal of unity between the three regions. Such a signal would perhaps be most highly weighed before 1999. While it will be a magnificent engineering achievement, and a marvelous travel experience, is it worth HK$117 billion and rising? If past records are anything to go by, and if the technical issues are as bad as some engineers paint them, that could be a much higher figure.
We have similar issues with the express rail to Guangzhou with the proud record of being by far the most expensive railway in the world. We’ll have a bullet train which won’t be able to run here anywhere near its usual operating speed. But on the bright side, however, its grand terminus has developers salivating.