Leung Chun-ying's petty politics distracts from pragmatic policies
Joseph Wong says Leung offered a policy address with many good, practical proposals to improve Hong Kong that was unfortunately marred by a petty attack on a youth publication
I watched Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying deliver his third policy address on TV. When I heard him say university students should be guided towards a full understanding of the constitutional relationship between the country and Hong Kong, I thought this style of lecturing would not go down well with our young people.
But he did not stop there. Instead, he went on to condemn Undergrad, a Hong Kong University Students' Union magazine, for featuring a cover story titled "Hong Kong people deciding their own fate" last year, and for publishing a book in 2013, Hong Kong Nationalism. The magazine and student leaders of the Occupy movement had "misstated some facts", he said, and called on political figures with close ties to the students to "advise them against putting forward such fallacies".
Why did Leung choose to use his policy address to slam the "fallacious" views put forward by some students? (For the record, Hong Kong Nationalism also contains articles that argue against self-determination). He could have chosen to write to Undergrad, as governor Sir David Trench did 40 years ago when he disagreed with certain views expressed in the student publication. Sir David ruled Hong Kong during the 1967 riots, a time when many students sympathised with the anti-colonial movement. Yet, the colonial government did not flex its muscle and launch an open attack against a student magazine.
If the students are now even more convinced that the chief executive is no more than a Beijing mouthpiece, they should not be blamed for their view after his comments.
What Leung did was not unlawful, but it would be viewed, fairly, by university staff and students as putting pressure on them for expressing views contrary to the official position. It also makes a mockery of Leung's pledge to uphold Hong Kong's core values, including freedom of expression, mentioned in the policy address.
Leung has distracted attention from an otherwise comprehensive and pragmatic policy address. Leaving aside the rising property prices, the address provides a detailed account of government efforts to find new land and build more public housing units. The pilot scheme to identify suitable public rental flats under construction for sale to eligible applicants is a welcome supplement to meeting the insatiable demand for subsidised flats. So is the revived idea of leveraging the private sector to increase the supply of such flats.
While the government has yet to offer solutions to the gross inadequacies in our retirement protection regime, Leung has at least set aside HK$50 billion for future needs, with a promise that the Commission on Poverty will devise a framework and set out the details for public consultation in the latter half of the year.