The government's answer to critics of its approach towards preserving Hong Kong's past will be unveiled today with the announcement of the new-look Antiquities Advisory Board and new proposals for public consultation on heritage conservation.
While these measures are, in part, aimed at appeasing the anger sparked by the demolition of the Star Ferry pier in Central, the government should not think that the matter will quietly go away.
Instead, as the discontent over the decision to remove without consultation yet another of our dwindling number of longstanding landmarks reveals, a better method than the piecemeal policy in place is needed - and quickly. The regrettable attitude of the past three decades in which heritage sites were preserved on a case-by-case basis - assuming there were public concerns raised in time - can no longer apply.
Promises that places of importance would be saved marked the coming into effect of the Antiquities and Monuments Ordinance and establishment of the Antiquities Advisory Board and Antiquities and Monuments Office in 1976. Evidence of their combined ineffectiveness is all around: The charm and memories of bygone eras have been torn down and replaced by modern buildings, shopping malls and roads.
One reason is that the government has no control over privately-owned buildings. Although it has declared 78 buildings, rock carvings, forts and archaeological sites as monuments - providing a measure of legal protection - more than 400 other structures put up before the second world war remain vulnerable.
There have been times when the government has not seemed to appreciate the need to protect Hong Kong's past. Kom Tong Hall, the Mid-Levels colonial mansion that was bought in the nick of time from its owners and is now the city's first museum to modern China's founding father, Sun Yat-sen, is the exception rather than the rule. A string of other sites have been destroyed, ranging from the Walled City in Kowloon to the Tiger Balm Gardens in Tai Hang.