THE HONG KONG MEDIA seem highly tolerant when it comes to verbal pollution. Everyday the Government feeds them statements and speeches that are often pregnant with lofty but empty language.
Frequent use of the word 'regret' is one particular ploy. Rather than apologise or even admit to any wrongdoing, officials in the hot seat often hide behind the linguistic ambiguity of this word.
One classic example of this is a government statement issued last June after the then Housing Authority chief Dr Rosanna Wong Yick-ming stepped down over the piling scandal in public housing projects.
'The Secretary for Housing, Mr Dominic Wong Shing-wah,' it asserts, 'regrets that Dr Rosanna Wong has resigned from the chairmanship of the Hong Kong Housing Authority'.
What Mr Wong had found regrettable might well be the almost unanimous sentiment of the public at large that she should resign. Lacking the courage to confront mainstream public opinion, the best he could muster was a vague statement of regret.
His colleague resorted to similar evasive tactics last November amid public outrage over the unusual settlement of some residential buildings on the Tseung Kwan O reclamation site.
At a press conference, Director of Territory Development, Wong Hung-kin, said: 'The Government regrets the concerns that have been felt by various residents of Tseung Kwan O, we have worked as quickly as we can to remove their uncertainties and give assurance of the safety of their homes.'