HK OBSERVER: From the ivory tower

Robert Carroll

Considering he’s one of the highest paid officials in the world, you would think he could spell his job title correctly. Who? Our gaffe-prone financial (sic)secretary who opened a Facebook page recently with his title misspelt last week. And that wasn’t the only gaffe in the past few days. What was he thinking when he told people not to buy flats if they couldn’t afford them?
Do we need to pay someone millions of dollars a year to state the obvious, while they remain insensitive to the misery of the many young professionals who are unable to buy a flat and move out of their cramped parents’ houses to start families? It is also insensitive to the majority of university students who despair of ever having a home of their own. Hasn’t he seen enough of what these young people are capable of during the Occupy protests to not add more fuel to the fire? If you’re going to make that kind of remark, don’t do it unless you can smooth the passage by stressing that vigorous measures will soon resolve the problem.
There was yet another flash of brilliance in his proposal to allow food trucks to operate in Hong Kong before checking with his officials if it was legal.  Yes they are; if they don’t move. Kind of defeats the purpose, though, doesn’t it? “We will change the law,” I can hear him say. Can’t you just hear the great cheers in the legislative council when that bill gets suggested before the pan-democrats, who are never in the mood for cooperation unless it involves more movement on political reform? Anyway, why not allow more street food in general? It’s highly popular and in demand among both cash-strapped and pressed-for-time locals and tourists alike. No, that might mean taking business away from the tycoon-owned fast food chains in tycoon-owned shopping malls, and less rent earned in them too. The official excuse is public health and hygiene concerns, but Singapore has hot and humid weather year-round – and is therefore more prone to bacterial food contamination – and has had licensed clean hawker stalls for decades.
Where did the food truck inspiration come from? Surely from a government-sponsored or academic study? Nope, Tsang got the idea from a rather mediocre movie. Reminds me of another famous gaffe of his, when he said he was not an out-of touch privileged, pampered civil servant, but a member of the middle class. The proof: he drinks coffee and watches foreign films. That’s the view from the ivory tower anyway.
Getting to more important matters under Tsang’s watch: while his budget speech gained some praise for tax relief and other measures, where was the vision? While warning about potential economic slowdown and again harking on about the need to save for the rainy days when health care will mushroom and government revenue falls, where are the big ideas that will help bring Hong Kong forward to the next stage of economic development? Where are the big initiatives to encourage more high-tech startups? What has happened to the then-Chief Executive Donald Tsang’s six-industry plan to diversify the economy by encouraging cultural and creative industries, medical services, education services, innovation and technology, testing and certification services, and environmental industries? One bright spot is that the West Kowloon Cultural Centre has been – albeit haltingly – on track for years, but what about medical and education hub proposals? Why were more private hospitals not built to cater for the extensive demand by mainlanders, when we have solved the problem of mainlanders giving birth to obtain residence, crowding out locals from maternity wards? Why is the high mainland demand for Hong Kong education not being met? We have captive markets in both cases and we are not exploiting them. Innovation and technology: too little, too late, but there may still be time to play catchup there. In the certification industry, we had a regional lead and lost it – now it’s probably too late to regain the lost ground.
Perhaps I have it all wrong and Tsang has better vision; after all, he can probably see quite far from his ivory tower.