Out of the bag
It may be a stretch, but it's just possible to feel sympathy for the bosses of ParknShop who did their best to introduce an environmentally sound policy of imposing a voluntary charge on the supply of plastic bags, only to be faced with a barrage of criticism. Yet, the critics had some valid questions, such as wanting to know how the money collected would find its way into the hands of appropriate charities. The company could have responded in a mature fashion and answered the critics. Instead, it rapidly decreed that, if it were to face questioning, it would go back to its old ways of dishing out the bags for free.
The decision seems to have come from the top in the shape of Canning Fok Kin-ning, the managing director of Hutchison Whampoa, ParknShop's parent company. Mr Fok and his boss, Li Ka-shing, who presides over the Cheung Kong group of which Hutchison is a part, seem rather oversensitive to criticism.
Indeed, in 2002, Mr Li threatened to stop investing in Hong Kong unless the critics kept quiet. Mr Li has apparently changed his mind on this matter, but he and his senior aides appear not to understand that presiding over what is arguably Hong Kong's leading conglomerate will inevitably attract greater scrutiny than the affairs of some minor operation that could well be doing things that deserve even greater approbation.
The age of deference towards the leaders of corporate Hong Kong has ended. No longer will bank customers line up humbly to present New Year gifts to their bank managers, nor can public companies automatically expect those attending their annual general meetings to nod through whatever the board recommends.
Yet Hong Kong consumers are nowhere near as assertive as those in the United States or Europe, nor do they have anything like the ammunition of protective consumer law enjoyed there. Meanwhile, shareholders in Hong Kong are only just beginning to appreciate their power to hold public companies to account. And they have to do so without the far greater transparency and accountability in other jurisdictions.
The reaction of business leaders to the government's laughable attempts at introducing a voluntary minimum-wage code shows just how out of touch they are. Some are genuinely taken aback by reports exposing their hypocrisy in supporting this scheme while paying their workers less than the minimum wages it specifies.
The government, meanwhile, behaves like a scared animal caught between the rapid advance of two dangerous predators. In the past, officials simply did all they could to placate and protect powerful business interests. Indeed they still do this by, for example, preventing the introduction of legislation to thwart anti-competitive practices that push up prices for consumers, by organising land sales to ensure the continued dominance of the big property cartels, and, of course, by ensuring that the growing army of very poorly paid people remain in poverty.
However, Hong Kong is no longer a largely immigrant society whose people expect little from the government and adopt a deferential attitude to officials. Civil consciousness is rising by the day.
The government's plan to sell off public-housing retail facilities was delayed by the action of a couple of poor and elderly public-housing tenants who objected to what they saw as an unfair deal. That they did not succeed is not the point; that they protested and gathered considerable support is very much the point.
And so it was again when ParknShop reversed its plastic-bag policy and found demonstrators outside its supermarkets' doors. Indeed, protest is now a frequent response to both government and corporate action.
Yet the protesters rarely succeed, because corporate power is remarkably concentrated in Hong Kong, and the government retains its tenacious grip over public policy. Those in power tend to resent the growth of civil society and the concomitant calls for greater accountability. The administration of Donald Tsang Yam-kuen pays some lip service to the development of civic consciousness but, in reality, views all opposition as little more than obstruction.
Does it really want to wait until this opposition reaches boiling point?
Stephen Vines is a Hong Kong-based journalist and entrepreneur
