'Prudent' is just an excuse for hoarding
Will he get it wrong again today? Will Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah again mess up big-time in handling the people's money? He told us during last year's budget we were heading for a HK$25 billion deficit. He was so wrong he should be ashamed. In today's budget he will admit the deficit he warned of has turned into a huge surplus - HK$70 billion or more. That's a lot of money. Think of the difference Tsang could have made to people's lives if he hadn't muddled his numbers. He could have spent more on the needy, maybe even finance new ideas to narrow the wealth gap. But no, our bureaucrats like to scare us into believing things are worse than they are and could worsen. This allows them to be 'prudent' with our cash, a word they love using to justify hoarding it for a rainy day instead of finding ways to spend it wisely. They've already hoarded HK$1.2 trillion. It smacks of a government so starved of new ideas and so spooked by what could happen in the future that it can think of no other way to use this money except to save it for a Noah's ark in case God unleashes another flood.
We're getting hungrier as the fridge gets fuller
If you've got a fridge full of food and are really hungry, would you eat some or save it all for when you're even hungrier while adding yet more food to your stockpile? It's a question Public Eye would like to put to Hong Kong Monetary Authority boss Norman Chan Tak-lam. He looks after the public's reserves - all HK$1.2 trillion of it. The people are now hungry for this money. They want to use some of these savings to build a better future for their children, to finance a decent retirement plan for themselves and to fight poverty. But Chan says the money must stay in the bank for when the people get even hungrier. He won't say how hungry they must get before he lets them have some of their money. And he won't say how much more money is enough before he'll give some back. All he will say is we must add and add to the stockpile. That means you get hungrier and hungrier while the fridge gets fuller and fuller.
Let's use 'rainy day' cash to end rain of sewage
Does two plus two equal four? Yes, you say? So how come the government has saved billions and billions of dollars of your money for a 'rainy day' yet pumps tonnes and tonnes of your poop into the harbour daily? Does 450 tonnes of virtually raw sewage flowing into the harbour every day add up to a 'rainy day' that qualifies for some of your 'rainy day' money to be spent on making our harbour poop-free? Yes, you say? Well, forget about it. Surely you know our bureaucrats can't add except when they're counting out their large pay packets. That's why they've been such a scrooge in spending money on sewage treatment plants. A quarter of our urban poop will continue to flow into our fragrant harbour for another four years after just simple treatment. Think about that when you next flush your toilet.