Public Eye
Leung conjures up HK$7b magic trick after ducking questions
Public Eye is aghast. We were hoping, stupidly perhaps, that Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying would finally come clean on his illegal structures when he faced legislators on Monday. He didn't. Instead, he hid behind a pending court case. Doesn't he know the more he ducks the more he'll trip and fall flat on his face? Opposition lawmakers were specific with their questions. Did he build some of the illegal additions to his Peak home? Did he make a late-night phone call to the editor of the paper that exposed the structures? Leung ducked. He handed out HK$7 billion worth of sweeteners instead. His aides dismissed claims they were a bribe to buy back public support for Leung. But of course it was a bribe. Legislators had long pressed for increased old age allowance. Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah and Labour Secretary Matthew Cheung Kin-chung had long insisted we couldn't afford it. But suddenly, after just 16 days of Leung as leader, it's done. If not a bribe it must be magic.
Bureaucrats sitting pretty in property paid for by the public
Hasn't Public Eye long said we have overpaid bureaucrats with iron rice bowls whose only contact with the people is from inside their chauffeured cars? But as we now know, even that wasn't enough. Our bureaucrats actually wrote rules that let them pay off their mortgages with the people's money. Mak Chai-kwong allegedly scammed even those generous rules. He resigned as development secretary after only 12 days when the ICAC arrested him. It now turns out that up to a tenth of civil servants in the 1980s had rented each others' flats instead of living in their own, to qualify for rent allowance. This means there are now thousands of bureaucrats, current and retired, who paid their mortgages with rent money that came from the people. Naturally, many have profited hugely from these flats in our booming property market. These are the same overpaid bureaucrats who love to glorify themselves as dedicated servants of the people. To them, serving the people means making the people buy their flats for them while the people themselves live in caged homes, subdivided slum flats, and wait for many years for public housing.
Lam has peculiar take on how disgraced Mak served the people
Dedicated to serving the people? Chief Secretary Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and Financial Secretary John Tsang both mouthed that tired mantra yet again on Sunday. Lam even went further, praising the disgraced Mak Chai-kwong for returning to the 'hot kitchen' after retiring so he could again serve the people. Very touching, but how exactly was he serving the people the first time round? By cross-renting flats with a buddy civil servant to qualify for rent allowance? If that's what Lam calls serving the people, then we don't want it. After her sanctimonious garbage, her chauffeur opened her car door for her and drove off. We rest our case.
After opening his mouth, Cheung now puts his drivel into print
Oh no, he's gone and done it again. Didn't Public Eye suggest just last week that C.Y. Leung should order top sidekick Barry Cheung Chun-yuen to zip it? Every time this man opens his mouth he says something stupid. Among the most hilarious were his claims that the tens of thousands who joined the July 1 protest showed that people supported Leung, and that the scandals surrounding Leung are just a 'difficulty', not a crisis. This time he went beyond opening his mouth. He put his drivel in a book for all to read - if his book sells, that is. Cheung writes that Leung's meet-the-people walkabouts were not a political stunt but a 'secret cure' for pressure and exhaustion. Really, C.Y.? And we thought all along that you really cared for the people. Your sidekick says your walkabouts are more for yourself than for them. Does that mean no more walkabouts if you're neither exhausted nor pressured? If that's not the case, we again suggest you order your sidekick to zip it. His drivel isn't helping you.
