Government's actions environmentally unsound
It saddened me that the SAR government had to wrap up trees and benches with plastic sheets on public property in order to discourage vandals and litter louts during the New Year celebrations.
The sight of wrapped-up trees and of government officials congratulating themselves made me very angry.
Of course, the most effective way to prevent vandalism and littering, in the long term, is to educate our younger generation to be responsible and to respect public property. But, in the short term, or when education fails, we have to rely on prosecutions.
We have laws to prosecute acts of vandalism and littering on public property and the violators should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
What our government did was economically and environmentally unsound. And, worst of all, it was an act of appeasement by a weak (or weakening) government that has sent a damning message that it does not have the courage to uphold the law.
This very act has damaged the authority and morality of our laws, and our law-enforcement apparatus. I am afraid next time round we will be seeing our policemen begging thieves not to steal and robbers not to rob.
JERRY PANG
Happy Valley
