Relax civil service language policy to attract best talent

As one of the newly recruited government translators back in the early eighties, I can still remember that we were bemused by the quaint title of our post "Chinese Language Officer". It was not as though Chinese was the only language that we knew, nor were we the only officers who knew Chinese.

It was shortly before the signing of the Joint Declaration and the colonial government was still dominated by expatriate officers at the more senior levels. English was indisputably the working language of the civil service. But, back then, English was the only language requirement for officers, local and expatriate. This partly explained why the translators, with their officially recognised Chinese skills, were classed as Chinese Language Officers.

We provided translation and Chinese secretarial support to the expatriate and local officers alike in dealing with the public, while, internally, official business was conducted in English. The expatriate officers had the advantage of English, but the local officers were bilingual, and capable of direct communications with the public they served.

If the usefulness of bilingualism was downplayed by the colonial government, it is embraced with a vengeance by the SAR government.

All government officers must now have native Chinese competency as well as a good command of English. Written communications with the public are entirely in Chinese, unless the citizen prefers English. Policy papers and public speeches that are primarily intended for a local audience are originally drafted in Chinese, with greater care and flair, with an English translation that may carry less weight.

All is as it should be. But if we seriously believe, rightly or wrongly, that the official use of English is somehow the price for being an international city, it is not difficult to see, too, that English is now our greater postcolonial challenge.