Chorus of discontent a refrain Tsang can no longer ignore
What is it about music that appeals so much to our government officials? We had Donald Tsang Yam-kuen reflecting on the music of Bob Dylan or (or 'Die-lan' as he pronounced it) last year. Yesterday it was the turn of Finance Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah to introduce a musical element in his speech at the Joint Business Community 2011-12 Budget luncheon.
John Tsang's choice of musician was American Glenn Miller (pictured) and he highlighted the harmony and balance that gave Miller's jazz band its distinctive sound. Just as harmony and balance are important to a band so it is to society, or so Tsang would have us believe, and he went on to say that the budget was an exercise in striking the right balance between returning wealth to the people without fuelling inflation. While there was much talk about balance, there was little on harmony. And it is the disharmony caused by his budget that he now has to face.
A musical metaphor can go a long way. Answering a question on prices spiralling upwards in the property market, Tsang said the government's solution to the problem was to increase demand, which drew a gasp of surprise from his audience. But it was a slip that Tsang did not notice and one you could say struck another discordant note.
Looking at the bigger picture, it is clear that the government is going to rethink the budget and come up with more palliative measures, which is an appalling comment on the state of Hong Kong governance.
You can't help feeling that Hong Kong people have got the measure of the government. They know that if they kick up enough fuss about something it will worry that the guys from the mainland's liaison office in Hong Kong will say they don't want a repeat of half a million people marching through the streets. So it decides to do something about it. Hence the government's about-turn on the budget. So Tsang needs to go back to his music and come up with a tune that is not necessarily a good one, but one that most people like. This is what the structural disarray of the budget process, combined with a lack of a democratically elected government, reduces us to. We deserve better.
A taxing tirade