It makes no sense to allow people who drive like maniacs into Hong Kong
One of the much-touted aims of this administration, greater transparency, is proving to be a public relations disaster.
Engendering credibility and public respect can only result when logic is applied in formulating policy to determine the sensible way forward, that is in Hong Kong's best interests, before going public. Today's sad state of affairs suggest we would be better served if the government were to initiate a morning mantra along the lines of: use your brain and avoid the shame.
At the top of the league table sits the Environmental Protection Department, which keeps reminding us of its total indifference to public outrage and its abject incompetence in dealing with the worsening miasma we inhale daily.
This department may now be alone in having blood on its hands with the reported deaths annually of some 3,000 Hong Kong residents.
Regardless, it is allowed to continue with its deadly, aimless and expensive sideways drift. In any other setting, such an abysmal track record would have spelled summary dismissal or, better still, a complete close down.
Vying to take its crown comes the Transport Department, presumably also intent on adding to the blood-letting.
Its recent show-stopping revelation that we are about to throw open our roads to some of the most ill-disciplined and maniacal drivers in the world deserves to go viral.
Mainlanders wishing to come here already have every conceivable means of travelling to their destination in comfort and with a fair chance of arriving in one piece.
What is Transport and Housing Secretary Eva Cheng's rationale in allowing private, left-hand drive vehicles on the wrong side of the road in the hands of a bunch of cowboys who won't have a clue where they are going and who will pay no heed to other road users?
Henry Tang Ying-yen tells us not to worry. On the contrary, he has 'extrapolated' yet again that this could enhance integration, another mind-blowing, throwaway line from someone who has never had to endure white-knuckle travel Shenzhen-style.
I assume Ms Cheng has likewise never been scared witless in the back seat of a clapped-out taxi.
We don't have room for more cars, nor will we have enough hospital beds come the time we need to put bodies back together, many of which will be ours.
Martin Labrum, Mong Kok
