Public Eye | We will know today if CY will keep his promises

It is make-or-break day for Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying. Today, he can blow his critics out of the water with a maiden policy speech so bold in its rejection of the old order that it leaves Hongkongers gaping. Or, the man who promised change during his election campaign can today be exposed as a fake. When he last went to the Legislative Council, he double-talked and dodged his way through what was billed as a come-clean session on his illegal structures. After missing the ball that first time, he gets to swing his bat again. But he needs to know it's two strikes and he's out, not three. The only way he can deflect the rabid attacks is with radical new policies so in tune with the people that their applause drowns out the critics. But now that he's the chief executive, does he have the guts to be the bold leader he promised? People are disgusted when the Forbes rich list says our tycoons have become wealthier by yet more billions while the pay of ordinary Hongkongers stagnated. Did Leung talk big to get elected or did he mean it when he promised change? We will know today.

Is Public Eye alone in being horrified by what HSBC's Greater China economist Donna Kwok wrote in this newspaper a week ago? Kwok boasted that by 2015 mainland arrivals to Hong Kong will swell from last year's 31 million to 50 million - more than four million a month. That's more than half our current population of seven million. Where are the wider pavements and roads, increased MTR and bus services, and expanded border checkpoints to accommodate a "floating" population of four million? Kwok boasts that the visitors will spend HK$55 billion a year here. But who will benefit? Not ordinary Hongkongers. In the 10 years since Hong Kong relaxed entry rules for mainlanders, the median pay has increased only by 10 per cent. There is a limit to how many people the city can handle. Can no one else hear the ticking time bomb?