IN VIEW of the New Year tragedy in Lan Kwai Fong, there must be a thorough inquiry. The main objective should not be to witch-hunt and lay blame, but to ensure such tragedies will not happen again.
Of course, if the independent inquiry shows there was negligence in anyway, then suitable reprimands or punishments should be made. But this will do nothing to bring back the lost lives. Only by learning from the incident and making sure we are well equipped to prevent such mishaps will we save many future lives - for the New Years Days, Christmases, Chinese New Year eves, Autumn Moon Festivals, Dragon Boat Festivals. . .
I speak as a person who has been to Lan Kwai Fong on a number of occasions, not only during festive times but on quiet nights as well. Being the father of two teenage sons, I know how popular a place it is for some youngsters.
In fact, my two sons did go there after our New Year's Eve dinner - with parental permission. One ended up making it there before 11, but not being able to get out until past 1 am. The other tried to get there but could not.
It is fair to say that I had a chance of being an aggrieved parent, too. My sons deny this - they claim they are sensible enough to avoid the most crowded areas because it was not as novel an experience as it was for first-time visitors. I do not know whether there is any message here - of the injured youngsters I and other legislators of the Co-operative Resources Centre visited at hospitals on New Years Day, apart from one, all said they were there for the first time.
I believe there are a number of areas worth probing into during the inquiry: How many police and other disciplinary services personnel were pre-planned for deployment in the vicinity for that evening? I do know extra resources were called on - a friend's husband knew he had to give up part of his family's New Years Eve celebration because he had to be on Auxiliary Police duty at Lan Kwai Fong.
It is hard to say how many police are enough. Whenever something goes wrong, people tend to say we do not have enough resources. If things are doing fine, people tend to say Government is wasting money and people are not productively employed.