Hong Kong's leadership of fools

How do you turn a muddle into an extraordinary mess? It's easy - join the administration of Leung Chun-ying. Let us momentarily set aside the mounting controversies confronting the government and turn to the dysfunctional way it conducts its affairs.

Speaking to senior civil servants, you quickly get the impression of a lack of confidence in their new leader. True, this is a tight-knit group with great confidence in their abilities, but they do like to be led. They also want some involvement in decision-making and to feel a sense of purpose. Evidently this is lacking in the new order.

Moving up the government food chain, we can only gasp at what is apparently happening in the Executive Council. Lam Woon-kwong, Exco's convener, has said it is not his job to act as a mouthpiece for government policy, but to furnish advice and occasionally go public on issues where he believes the government is falling down on the job.

This is an admirable point of view from an admirable person. But how can he sit at the head of Exco while acting as one of its more articulate critics?

A well-functioning government must surely need some sense of collective responsibility among those at the top. Lam has argued that he is not a civil servant and acts independently, but no sensible government arranges its affairs in a manner that permits members of its executive to advocate policies that are contrary to those decided by the government as a whole.

However, maybe Exco has been reduced to little more than a sham, only consulted after policy decisions have been made. This appears to be the case, if officials are to be believed when they defend Exco member Franklin Lam Fan-keung against accusations of using insider knowledge to make profitable property trades. They insist that Lam and the other non-official members were not informed of the government's new property policy until it was made public.