First, let's have bread-and-butter democracy
Last week, when the axe fell on Paul Morris, president of the Hong Kong Institute of Education, the move backfired into accusations aimed at the government leadership. Despite having massive support from students and staff, he was voted out by a council, 14 out of 16 of whose voting members are government appointees. This is at a time when the government is pushing self-government in secondary schools.
For the first time in the history of Hong Kong tertiary education, more than 1,000 members of this academic community openly revolted, calling for the council chairman's sacking for betraying the trust placed in him. He is accused of being a tool of officials with a hidden agenda.
Professor Morris, for his part, has led the institute through its darkest days, threatened with savage budget cuts and savage teacher-bashing. Despite this, it shows promise of becoming part of the education hub, turning Hong Kong into a centre of teacher-training excellence.
By crushing the popular will, the council is creating a leadership vacuum, leaving the institute rudderless at a critical juncture of its development.
Drastic actions, including boycotting classes, are mooted to end the institute's servitude. This firestorm of protest is the institutional equivalent of the march by half a million. This is yet another episode of dysfunctional governance - of an asymmetrical relationship between the governed and those who govern.
Hong Kong people have been barking up the wrong tree. Why talk about electoral democracy when we don't even enjoy small democracies at the institutional, service level? A responsive government doesn't have to come from Beijing. It comes from a government humble enough to listen before it acts, and wise enough not to trample on the wishes of those it claims to serve.
When will this government ever learn to listen? Social harmony is not a buzzword in the mouth of the leader. It is a two-way concept rooted in respect and responsiveness. At a minimum, the government should remove its dead hand from a well-led institution.
This chief executive will continue to stumble and fumble until he learns to take the pulse of his people. A leader who has tuned out may soon be running out of the moral authority to govern.
A stubborn virus has infected the minds of our high officials. It is called the 'I-know-better' disorder. Apparently incurable, it continues to ravage the lives of those who have to live with it.
In government agencies with unchecked discretionary powers such as the Education and Manpower Bureau, the consequences of this malady are deadly. Typically, they appoint pliant businessmen to do their bidding. It is government by deception - because they pretend to listen, but are bent on imposing the will of self-righteous officials.
Until this style of governance is radically altered, it will eat away at the ethical core of government - victimising and embittering a helpless public.
Strangely, the cure may come from a mainland official. Late last year, China's Minister of Water Resources, Wang Shucheng came to lecture at local universities. He possesses three qualities woefully lacking in most of our principal officials: technical expertise, 360-degree strategic vision and, most importantly, the ability to listen at the grass-roots level. Above all, he never claims infallibility.
This is a recipe for good government. Rather than pie-in-the-sky constitutional democracy, give us bread-and-butter institutional democracy instead - here and now.
Philip Yeung is a Hong Kong-based writer
